04-28-08: Washington residents celebrate Earth Day

(c) Washington Daily News

By Greg Katski, Staff Writer

WASHINGTON, N.C. -- Washington area residents got a chance to celebrate Earth Day for a change on Saturday afternoon.

The Pamlico-Tar River Foundation and the Progressive Democrats of Beaufort County organized and sponsored an Earth Day event at Haven’s Gardens “to raise awareness for Earth Day and environmental issues, particularly in our watershed,” according to PTRF volunteer Grace Lekxon.

In addition to the PTRF and Progressive Democrats of Beaufort County, numerous local volunteer and non-profit organizations dedicated to environmental awareness participated in the event, including the Sierra Club, the Unnatural Resources Institute, Toxic Free N.C., the Chocowinity Chicken Sanctuary and Education Center, the Friends of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and the Red Wolf Coalition. These organizations were joined by local, state and national park services, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and River Park North.

Each organization and service had booths set up around Haven’s Gardens, with pamphlets and volunteers on hand to promote its environmental agenda.

The idea for the event came about at a Progressive Democrats of Beaufort County meeting, according to Pat Seibert, chair of the Progressive Democrats and volunteer with the Riverforce Waterkeeper Alliance and PTRF.

“At a Progressive Democrats meeting, one of us said ‘We should do something for Earth Day.’ Because some of us are members of PTRF, we decided to try to coordinate with them, so the PTRF sponsored it,” Seibert said.

With sponsor in tow, the committee made a list of ideal environmental organizations and services to participate in the event.

“There are six of us, PTRF and Progressive Democrats, and we made a list and divided it up,” Seibert said. “Most of the inviting was done through email.”

Seibert was encouraged by the turn out of organizations for the event, and even more delighted by the influx of attendees throughout the afternoon.

“Its actually been better than expected,” Seibert said. “We were not sure how it was going to work, but we’ve had more (attendees) than I thought we would have.”

Although Earth Day was on April 22, event planners decided to schedule the festivities for Saturday in hopes for increased exposure, according to PTRF Executive Director David Emmerling.

“Earth Day’s been celebrated for 25 years or so, but we felt like it would be a good idea to move our Earth Day celebration to the weekend and make it more accessible to folks rather than have it on (April) 22, a weekday,” Emmerling said.

Seibert thinks that there is an immediate need for increased environmental awareness in Beaufort County.

“Its worth doing, its worth the work,” Seibert said. “You can get people in Beaufort County to think about Earth Day and maybe think more when they throw away that plastic bottle; instead of buying a plastic bottle, doing something different like drinking water from your own private cup because plastic is a terrible pollutant.”

Emmerling reinforced the importance of such an event.

“I think its important that we do these things,” Emmerling said.

Seibert, who claims that the festival will become an annual event, cautions complacency in regards to environmental issues.

“What is going to happen to this planet if we don’t do something, change something?” Seibert said.