April 21, 2007 — Children and grown-ups painted nature scenes, played games, ate pizza and learned a bit about St. Croix’s environment at an early Earth Day celebration at Cramer Park Saturday.
The V.I. Nature Conservancy and the V.I. Network of Environmental Educators (VINE) put the event together as a celebration of the land and sea around us and to promote a sense of stewardship of the environment. Educational tableaus were set up highlighting various regional environmental issues, like coral bleaching. There was lots of pizza and drinks along with an array of educational games and contests.
“The goal of today’s event was to bring the community together to appreciate the beauty and the offerings of St. Croix and celebrate them with a party,” said Nature Conservancy Outreach Officer Lisa Fisk. “We hope to help people learn more about the land, the water and our role in protecting and enjoying both,” Fisk said. “Many people helped us put it all together. The St. Croix Central High School Environmental Club came in and worked for hours this morning setting everything up for us. They’re just wonderful kids volunteering their time.”
VINE is an umbrella organization composed of members of the Nature Conservancy, the St. Croix Environmental Association, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, DPNR and others. VINE volunteers Steve and Sharon Grimes manned a table with whelk and conch shells of different sizes, tagged to show how the sizes vary with age. The couple demonstrated how to use a handy measuring gauge given out by the Department of Planning and Natural Resources. If a whelk fits through the hole in the gauge, you have to throw it back.
Like other VINE volunteers, Sharon Grimes goes into schools to teach about the environment. The couple recently retired and moved here and Sharon Grimes got involved with VINE as a worthwhile way to use her talents.
“While talking at another event, they found I was knowledgeable about shells and asked me if I would be interested in speaking and teaching about them,” Sharon Grimes said.
Nearly everyone who came to the celebration in the park painted a small canvas with an environmental scene of some kind.
“We have 300 canvases,” Fisk said. Once they are done, they will all be put together as a mural and displayed. Any we don’t finish today we will take to the schools for students to paint.”
Each of the canvases expressed the vision of the particular painter. One woman carefully drew the outline of an elaborately detailed sea turtle. Others painted octopi and other sea creatures. Young Nora Abdirahman was there painting a blue sea filled with gray fish jumping under a yellow sun. Her mother and father and two of her siblings were there painting, too. Nora’s mother, Lisette, heard about the celebration when she called VINE to coordinate a speaker for the Girl Scouts.
“It’s something nice for the kids to do,” Lisette said. “Coming out here, there are other kids, they have fun things to do and we can help teach them to appreciate the beauty of the natural world around them.”
Now observed in 175 countries, Earth Day began in 1970 as a teach-in sponsored by then Sen. Gaylord Nelson. Twenty million Americans all over the country participated in the first event, which is credited with greatly spurring forward the environmental movement and leading to clean water and air legislation. Today it is thought to be the largest secular holiday in the world.
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