By KARIN ARGANO
Thank you Mother Nature. Sunday, April 21, was a spectacular day at the Greenspace Creekside Reserve as the community celebrated Earth Day with Greenspace and Soto’s True Earth Market, sponsors of the event. It was sunny and warm as almost 500 guests walked amongst 26 booths of local eco-organizations, artists, and food and beverage venders.
The theme, Planet vs. Plastics, was illustrated at each booth and the question was how to reduce the use of plastics. There were many examples of how to recycle and re-use; how to keep creeks and watersheds clean; and how to better care for the oceans along with the wildlife and marine life in this community.
In the meadow several more events were taking place with a Bear Crawl Bootcamp, a Pilates session, Yoga Flossing demonstration, and Aerial Silk classes led by local trainers and studios. At the newly built learning center attendees enjoyed classes about bats, vegetable gardening in containers, and how to use native plants in the garden.
The ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Learning Shed and Native Plant Demonstration Garden was officiated by Oz Barron from the Cambria Chamber of Commerce, and District 2 Supervisor Bruce Gibson, who shared stories about his long history in Cambria and the importance of conserving spaces like the Creekside Reserve.
Entertainment was supplied by music from local band Lion Remain along with a storytelling hour featuring Amber Atkinson accompanied by Brynn Albanese. There were so many fun activities for kids, including face painting by Renee Linn, coloring books to take home, and cool exhibits geared to educate at all the booths.
Alice the Great Horned Owl, one of the animal ambassadors from Pacific Wildlife Care, paid a visit. What a treat for everyone to see her close up and learn more about this powerful predator that we hear outside the windows at night.
Docents Terry and Cheryl Kershaw were present in the Native Plant Demonstration Garden to answer questions throughout the event, and the Chinese Temple was also open to view with a Greenspace docent providing information about this piece of local history.
Thanks go to everyone who participated and attended the Festival. It is Greenspace’s hope that everyone will go forward as more conscientious citizens aware of the human impact on the environment. A special canvas market bag was created for this event and is available for sale at Soto’s True Earth Market. This is a simple way to stop using plastic shopping bags. It truly takes a village, and Cambria has what it takes to help stop the growth of discarding micro-plastics on land and in the oceans.
Photo credit goes to Megg McNamee
