Earth Day Celebration 2010: Recap
The second annual Earth Day Celebration was great fun! This year’s event had even more participants and booths than last year, though the weather seems to always be a challenge in April. Twenty-eight booths were set up in the Oakwood Homes New Home Center parking lot with vendors and non-for-profits providing information, products, entertainment and yummy food. When singers Haleigh Stewart and Sarah Quarrels were not belting out some fabulous tunes, The Denver Bronco’s Boys & Girls Club disc- jockeyed the music. Oyoyo! an African drum group also played.
There were many volunteers on hand to share about community groups like Boy Scout troop 487, Denver Police Department District 5, GVR Metro District and HOA and the Citizen’s Advisory Board. Representatives from several local schools came out too; SOAR, Community Academy, the Florida Pitt Waller Green Team and others were in attendance.
The whole family could enjoy the breath-taking birds brought out by the Colorado Raptors Education Foundation sponsored by Best Buy. Three rescued birds were on hand to help educate and marvel the crowd. Liberty National Life Insurance Company sponsored games and a huge slide, which were big hits with the kids. And if you visited the Best Buy and Kid-to-Kid booths, some incredible face painting was available.
A special thanks to all those who helped beautify the community by picking up trash for the Community Clean Up, especially Rick & Yvette Claeys, Boy Scout troop 487, The Denver Bronco’s Boys & Girls Club, and a 26 member team of volunteers from Best Buy. Six local spaces were cleared of garbage.
This was the first year for our Earth Day Poster contest. The entries, which were posted online for voting at MyGVR.org, were great and everyone was impressed with the artistic talent of the youth in our area. Thank you to everyone who voted and congratulations to Cynthia Martinez from the Denver Bronco’s Boys & Girls Club and Abigail Carreon- Lopez’ from Montbello High School. They each won an iPod courtesy of our local Best Buy.
Although it rained a bit, we had a great turnout for the free electronics recycling sponsored by Techno+Rescue and the free document shredding by Shred It. Both companies are planning to provide services again next year, so be sure to save those items from the landfill and bring them along to next year’s event. In addition to the many prizes donated for the drawing, King Soopers gave away reusable bags and Xcel Energy encouraged switching over to CFL bulbs by providing some free of charge. Everyone went home with new ideas and items for reducing their impact on the environment.
We had a lot of fun, but my favorite was the dance off between the Best Buy Tag and McGruff the Crime Dog. Hope you will join us next year on April 23, 2011 for another great event here in Green Valley Ranch!
Thanks to all our sponsors, donors and participants for supporting our event and local Earth Day efforts. Your contribution to the community is invaluable!
7-Eleven
African Awareness Exposition
American Dream Tie Dyes
Best Buy
Boy Scout troop 487
BRAG
Colorado Raptors Education Foundation
Community Academy
Culligan
Denver Bronco Boys & Girls Club
Denver Police Department, District 5
Dream Vie
EarthLinks
ELK- Environmental Learning for Kids
Florida Pitt Waller Green Team
Friends of Berthoud Pass
GVR Citizens’ Advisory Board- Events Committee
GVR Metro District & HOA
Kid-to-Kid of Aurora
King Soopers
Liberty National Life Insurance Company
Lil’Teeth Dentistry
Mark Merhinger, Candidate for State House
McAlister’s Deli
Oakwood Homes
Sarah Quarels & Haleigh Stewart
Senator Mike Johnston
Shred It
SOAR Charter Schools
Sun Talk Solar
Techno+Rescue
Walmart
Xcel Energy
We look forward to seeing all of you again next year!
Article by Angela Harris
