Many outside events on the Washtenaw Community College campus were planned for the Ann Arbor area Earth Day Festival on Sunday, but with rain, the hundreds in attendance and the exhibitors kept inside of the Morris Lawrence building.
Among the displays at the event were the Leslie Science and Nature Center, the Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant, Recycle Ann Arbor and the Ypsilanti Food Co-Op.
The Leslie Science and Nature Center set up an animal exhibit by the door to greet people as they entered the building. Francie Krawcke and Leanne Chadwick, who work for the center, handled several different birds, including a bald eagle, a great horned owl, a screech owl, a barred owl and a red-tailed hawk.
All of the birds were injured, Krawcke explained, and can’t survive on their own in the wild.
Lisa Bashert, a beekeeper at the Ypsilanti Food Co-op, was allowing people to plant their own vegetables to take home, and she had a booth that educated people on the co-op.
“It’s part of the mission of the Food Co-op to do programs that also benefit the community,” Bashert said. “We have 12 solar panels. We also help the City Hall in Ypsi to get 16 solar panels. We also run the River Street Bakery, and we participate in events like this to further sustainability and more resilient organizations in the community.”
Bashert was also there to promote a beekeeping program.
“The Food Co-op is doing a beekeeping project this summer where we’re having five hives,” she said. “The goal of the beekeeping is that we’re going to train beekeepers to have their own small holdings. Hopefully they’ll sell their honey back to the Food Co-op so we’ll have a source of local honey.”
Bashert also added the Food Co-op has a lot to offer EMU students.
“We have really great, excellent food at competitive prices, at a non-profit grocery store — the only grocery store that’s in the downtown of Ypsilanti,” she said. “So, people can walk down from Eastern, shop there. You don’t have to be a member, but if you are a member, you get a discount.”
Caroline Mitchell was at the event representing Recycle Ann Arbor, a non-profit group started in 1977.
“Earth Day is an excellent opportunity for everyone to stop and take a look at the environment around us, and to think a little bit more closely about the impact we have on the environment,” Mitchell said. “It gives everyone an opportunity to come together and decide how we can make further change.”
Mitchell also talked about what Recycle Ann Arbor was doing at the event to promote Earth Day.
“To make this a zero waste event we worked with all of the vendors ahead of time to ensure that they are distributing only recyclable or compost-able materials,” she said. “And as a result of that planning, we were able to pull all of the trash cans from the public spaces here, and there are only zero-waste stations.”
Ted Hejka, a lab analyst at the Ann Arbor Water Treatment Plant, was conducting a drinking water test, allowing people to try different sources and pick their favorites, while his niece tallied the results.
“We have three different water supplies — Ann Arbor, City of Detroit, and bottled water,” Hejka said. “We’re asking people what they recommend. Ann Arbor is the best so far, followed by City of Detroit, followed by bottled water. People like being asked what their opinions are. We’re curious too, at the water plant, what people feel about the taste of the drinking water, and to see if we can make improvements on our treatment process.”
Local businessman John Barrie, the executive director of The Appropriate Technology Collaborative, had a booth at the event to show people some of the designs his company is developing to sell to low-income people around the world.
“There are about 2 billion people in the world who make less than two dollars a day,” Barrie said. “Those are our clients. One of our designs is a solar panel and LED lighting system to replace kerosene lamps. It costs less than kerosene does — people spend maybe 80 cents a week to 2 dollars a week on kerosene to light their homes, and our system costs less, is less polluting, and it provides much better light.”
Some of Barrie’s other designs are a thermo-acoustic generator and a solar refrigerator.
Barrie said all of the products can be made locally by the people who need them using material they already have.
Washtenaw Community College singer/songwriters performed in the Towsley Auditorium, which was preceded by Renee Stokley’s cigar box guitar performance. The students wrote songs specifically for Earth Day.
Joe Reilly, a local musician, also performed music in the auditorium after the WCC students.
Children and some adults participated in the “All Species Parade,” in which they dressed up in their favorite animal or plant costumes.
