Planning Natick’s 2017 Green-up Week and Earth Day Festival

By Pat Conaway
Issue Date: 
March, 2017
Article Body: 

Keep Natick Beautiful
Imagine an entire town coming together once a year in April to celebrate the Earth, learn from each other and make new friends. Thanks to our intrepid Earth Day Committee volunteers, that’s what we’ve been doing here in Natick for the past six years. On our unique Natick Common, we cobble together an amazing Earth Day Festival that celebrates the formidable strengths of our community and connects them to the Earth.
Earth Day Festival,
April 23
Earth Day on Saturday, April 23, 11 am to 3 pm (rain date: April 30), will have kids’ activities, food vendors, artisans, live music, wildlife demonstrations, and displays by municipal and grassroots initiatives promoting sustainability. Visitors will meet the people who are on the front lines helping Natick improve its trails, parklands, woodlands and traffic problems and learn about the many programs conducted by several of Natick’s “environmental jewels”—Natick Community Organic Farm and their neighbors along the Charles River, The Massachusetts Horticultural Society and Natick’s Broadmoor Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary.
Green-up Natick Week, April 18-21
Prior to the festival, we’re conducting Natick Green-up Week, April 18-21. Come help us clean up some beautiful spaces that are often abused (Dug and Fisk ponds and the Pegan Cove Park area). The week is sponsored by Keep Natick Beautiful, the Natick Department of Public Works, the Natick High School, the Natick Common Spiritual Center and Natick Grows.
Contest for
Natick Students
New this year is a contest, “The Most Informative and Engaging Display, Demonstration or Activity,” for middle and high school students. We plan to recruit students and display a dozen or more student projects that focus on renewable energy, water conservation, endangered species, pollution, climate change and sustainability. Students will explain and demonstrate their messages to the public. A panel of judges will evaluate the projects and prizes will be announced at the end of the festival on Saturday.
For more information, and to volunteer for Green-up Week, contact Pat Conaway, Chair, Natick Earth Day Committee, 508-740-9949 or bpconaway@gmail.com, visit us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/events/973210126084534, or the web, natickearthday.org or keepnatickbeautiful.org.