“Earth Days on the Greenway” April 20th and 21st will feature speakers, performers, and hands on workshops to share information and call for action.
Bethlehem Pa, April 1, 2013 - The Lehigh Valley Sierra Club announces “Earth Days on the Greenway” a family friendly festival taking place Saturday April 20th and Sunday April 21st on Bethlehem’s Southside Greenway between 3rd and 4th Streets. This free event is open to the
public and will be from 11am to 5pm on Saturday and 12pm to 5pm on Sunday.
The goal of the event is to educate and inspire people to
join together in taking positive, hands-on actions to address the challenges of climate change and to celebrate the many earth-friendly initiatives and organizations within our community.
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Bethlehem’s Mayor John Callahan will join us at 12:30 Saturday afternoon for a dedication of the new GREENWAY
project. A tree will be planted in honor of all the people who worked on the project and made it a reality. The GREENWAY is creating a new sense of community as it threads through the various neighborhoods, connecting with its schools, churches & businesses on
Bethlehem’s Southside. We hope that EARTH DAYS 2013 will give birth to new partnerships between the participating individuals and groups and generate the
ideas and leadership required to reverse our human contributions to Climate Change, which have been largely created by our modern society’s consumer habits
& lifestyles.
Presentations by:
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Robin Mann is a former President of the National Sierra Club. She currently is chairing the Solar Homes
Project for the PA Chapter and will speak on the benefits of green energy development for the state of Pennsylvania and how this will help bring new jobs into our
area. She will highlight the many SC efforts in PA & nationally being done to confront Climate Change issues and promote clean energy development.
Jeff Schmidt is the Director of
the Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania Chapter & founder of the LV Sierra Club Group in 1978. He has been working for the club in Harrisburg for over 30 years and
understands the legislative & regulatory playing field better than anyone. He will talk about the top environmental issues being debated in Harrisburg & how you can make a difference.
Karen Feridun is Founder of Berks Gas Truth and one of the organizers of 350.org Berks & Lehigh Valley Climate Action. She will talk about why Natural Gas is not a “Bridge fuel” and why we must minimize our dependence on all
fossil fuels.
Carmen Pirotte of Earthworms Plus will discuss environmental impacts of garbage in a fun & informational manner and give pointers on how we can minimize our trash by recycling and composting our household wastes.
Alex Bodian, president of Teratherm Geothermal, LLC will highlight the benefits of using geothermal sources to heat & cool our homes.
Bruce Wilson,LEED AP, Owner of Bruce Wilson Contracting and Co-Founder with his wife Annie Prince of the Lehigh Valley Green
Builders non-profit organization, will speak about "Reducing Energy Use in Buildings as a tool for Carbon
Footprint Reduction".
David Harder, owner of Nature's Way Market, Easton and Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalist Guild will discuss and point out some of the Medicinal and Edible plants growing as natives in the Bethlehem
surroundings. Find your salad greens and medicines out your back door!
LornaMidglow-Yearwood, backyard farmer and environmental activist, will talk about the
likely impacts of climate change on Pennsylvania agriculture and then present tips and tricks to keep our backyard vegetable gardens bountiful in the
face of climate challenges.
Adam Garber, Field Director for Penn Environment will talk about our natural heritage and the many
threats it faces today from lack of funding to fracking for natural gas in our forests and communities. He will give us
some ways we can help to insure that places like Lehigh Valley Gorge, Valley Forge & Gettsyburg are still here for our future generations.
Sam Bernhardt, organizer for Food & Water Watch
will outline the pitfalls of privatizing our public water systems.
Moravian College Eco Club will build a Eco Homestead to show ways to live with the reality of climate changes and renewable energy sources. Exhibit will include goats and chickens, a solar oven and solar panels, and back yard solar clothes dryer among many other innovations.
Activists, organizers, and researchers from environmental
and social organizations will join the speakers in presenting their initiatives for the coming year and to offer numerous hands-on opportunities and workshops to learn how to build Straw Bale Gardens, Bird Boxes, Toad Houses and much more!
Brown Daub will have an electric Chevy Volt on display and
Rothrock will bring their Nissan Leaf . There will also be several Toyota Prius owners who will demonstrate
their cars. Local Farmers and Food Vendors will be on site to offer up some of the best tasting food from around the Lehigh Valley.
Festival goers will be able to enjoy an eclectic gathering
of entertainment from Bluegrass, Folk and Celtic Music to Poetry, Ethnic Dance, and Art Displays in many forms. Musical performers include The Druckenmillers, Dave Fry, Dan DeChellis, Dave Reber, Jackie Tice, Piper’s Request and Last Small Town, among many other great musicians!
A special Children’s Program will be presented on stage
Sunday from 1:30 – 3:00 pm featuring Dave Fry & Tom Church along with the Mock Turtle Marionettes. There will be lots of other children’s activities on the Greenway including:
Recycling Relays
Fly Casting Demonstrations
Creatures from the Creek
Making Bird Feeders & Toad Houses
Carman Pirotte will have her Earthworm composting bins so the little ones can watch the hard working Red Wigglers as they turn our leftovers into magic soil! There will also be cakes baking in the solar oven and chickens laying eggs while our pigmy goats munch away on the Eco-Homestead
lawn.
For more information on the
speakers, participating organizations, and exhibitors, please visit our
website, http://www.earthdaysonthegreenway.blogspot.com.
Plan to join us for the 43rd anniversary of Earth
Day this weekend and include some extra time to enjoy Southside’s “Spring on Fourth Chili Fest Cook-off” on Saturday and Touchstone Theater’s outdoor
Greenway performances of “Ulysses Dreams” on both days.
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