On Saturday, a community center in East Palo Alto called the Bloomhouse, hosted the annual Love Our Earth festival. Parents attended with their children along with teens looking for ways to help their environment. White tents surrounded the area with fun activities for children, food, music, and environmentally friendly products.
Children huddled around tables creating beautiful arts and crafts that volunteers set up. The Menlo Atherton cooperative nursery school had scratch paper crowns for children to decorate at their station, “I love the Erath Day festival and I love creating these fun eco-friendly crafts for kids so it’s all perfect” said one of the volunteers. People were lined up at the flower press station where there were varieties of flowers to choose from. People pressed the flowers down, hit them with a hammer, and then revealed a pretty design that was created.
Ashley Merz started her plastic-free body care business, The Source Zero, six years ago intending to help people reduce their plastic footprint. “We do refills at our store where people bring in anything from sunscreen, hair care, and soaps but we handmake everything for events like these. All of these things are just better alternatives for plastic use,” she said.
Beekeeper Alla arrived at the event with jars of honey, handmade candles, and a beehive. She explains how difficult the process can be, “Every year I extract a pound and a half of wax which only makes about 10 candles.” Alla described how each part of the hive smells different so each candle has its individual scent. She continues, “Every month I extract honey and two to three boxes make about three gallons of honey.”
The one-man show from Hearty combined juggling, unicycling, and comedy to teach children about the environment along with the safety of walking or rolling to school. Children giggled as Hearty unicycled around the stage and juggled colorful balls resembling the sun, earth, and moon.
This four-hour event was the perfect way for the community to come together to celebrate our planet Earth.
