Second annual Earth Day Fest

We’ve been busy these last few months planning out our second annual Earth Day Fest, which we’re holding out on our lawn this year on Saturday, April 21, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. - rain or shine! We can’t wait!

Join us for a fair-style, fun, and fact-filled day, featuring activities and information from our co-sponsors: the Boothbay Region Land Trust, Garden Club, Sea and Science Center, Refuse District, CMBG, and Hearty Roots who will be hosting booths and offering education, crafts, snacks, and general merriment. The Boothbay Region Water District will have a watershed model to explore and show the effects of stormwater pollution and runoff on water quality, as well as information on ways to protect all water bodies. Stop by and visit the Lincoln County Gleaners and learn about how the gleaners are recovering produce from local farms in Lincoln County to help feed hungry people, and sample a snack made from gleaned food.

The day’s only scheduled program will be Chewonki’s “Animal Adaptations” at 11 a.m. They’ll teach us about all of the ways animals use adaptations to survive in the wild. Folks will get to try on fun costumes to experience firsthand how animals survive in the wild.  For more information, visit us online at https://bbhlibrary.org/april-21-earth-day-fest/ or call the library.

I don’t know if it’s been all the Earth Day planning, but for the last few weeks I’ve been reading a lot of natural disaster books. I guess nothing makes me appreciate a healthy planet Earth like some end-of-the-world drama.

I tore through “Life As We Knew It” by Susan Beth Pfeffer (a YA fiction novel) and read it in one sitting. In it, an asteroid strikes the moon, pushing it suddenly closer to the Earth and wreaking havoc on our tides (tsunamis), landscape (earthquakes), and climate (volcanic ash from eruptions plunging the planet into deep winter). Billions die, it snows in August, and people are starving by the millions. My kind of fiction!

After that, I moved on to “The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet” by Heidi Cullen. This one is adult non-fiction, so it’s much scarier. Floods, fires, drought and famine … the picture Cullen paints is not so different from the Earth that Pfeffer creates. Unfortunately, Cullen’s vision is incredibly likely to happen if we don’t continue to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. (FYI, I downloaded both of these books to my phone using the CloudLibrary app, and you can too!)

In the end, all the disaster reading I’ve done has me even more excited for our Earth Day Fest, because it’s not a day set up to make us all feel hopeless about the future. It’s going to be a celebration of the outdoors — of forests, animals, ocean, sky, and all the things we love so much about living on the beautiful coast of Maine.

Upcoming events

Refreshing the Whodunit: Saturday, April 14, 10:30 a.m. “The Skull Mantra” by Eliot Pattison.

Vacation Week Programming: Poetry and RoboPots, Tuesday, April 17 to Friday, April 20, 1-3:30 p.m., grades 4 – 8. Robopots requires registration. Register at bbhlibrary.org/robo-pots/ or 633-3112.

Book Focus Group: Wednesday, April 18, 4:30 p.m. Poetry of E.A. Robinson. Community Room.

Earth Day Fest: Saturday, April 21, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Library Lawn.

Friday Story Hour: Hear a story, make a craft, and sing a song with Miss Pam and Miss Harolyn. 10:15 a.m., ages birth to 5.