This weekend, islanders will join together for an ohana-style celebration of Earth Day. The fourth annual “Earth Day Rising Festival” Friday to Sunday at Waipa will feature music, workshops, arts and crafts and camping. “We’ve always been involved in events
This weekend, islanders will join together for an ohana-style celebration of Earth Day.
The fourth annual “Earth Day Rising Festival” Friday to Sunday at Waipa will feature music, workshops, arts and crafts and camping.
“We’ve always been involved in events that bridge different segments of the community and brings them all together in one common cause,” said Keone Kealoha, executive director of Malama Kauai, which is hosting the event. “We’re creating an environment that more easily facilitates relationship building with a shared love of music, food, working together and preservation of special places, among all people.”
The festival is expected to attract around 250 participants. Saturday morning will be a volunteer work session. In years past, participants pulled weeds around the taro area, planted koa trees and worked in the organic gardens.
“It’s a way to give back,” said Kealoha. “When you use a place, like we will this weekend, we’re teaching about how to give back because you utilized it.”
Sunday workshops will teach the concepts of edible landscaping, cheese making, the uses for all parts of the coconut and how to butcher and clean a chicken.
“That seems to be a lost art in the last generation,” said Kealoha.
Locally grown foods and crafts made using island materials will be for sale. There will also be a toy exchange.
After the Easter egg hunt, children will have the opportunity to paint their own rocks.
“We figured it would be a way to create mementos from the event,” said Kealoha.
Camping info: http://tinyurl.com/EDRCamping
The official Earth Day is April 22 and is coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network and celebrated in more than 192 countries each year.
