Earth Day. I remember the first observance in 1970, I was a high school freshman. I don't remember if there was an assembly or science class outside, but I do remember how special I thought the idea was: Each of us can help make our corners of the world protected. Prior to this, all we had to remind us to protect the earth from littering was a commercial featuring a Native American picking up trash thown out of a car, and a tear escaping his eye and moving down his cheek. No words necessary. 

Thank heaven for Earth Day, which comes 'round every April 22. Three days later, on Saturday, Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library (BHML) was joined by nine local and regional environmental groups with one single message: The earth has a great deal to teach us, but are we listening? Are we doing what we can to help our planet exist long into the future, or will we be responsible for killing Mother Earth? To that end, joining BHML were Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, Boothbay Region Land Trust, Boothbay Region Clean Drinking Water Initiative, Boothbay Sea and Science Center (BSSC), Healthy Lincoln County, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Maine State Aquarium, Knox-Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District, A Neighborhood Naturalist, Pollination Station, and Boothbay Region Climate Action Team. Each group had informational brochures, images, spokespersons to talk about that group's work,how everyone could help, and games. Yes, learning games, and from what I observed the kids were loving it.

Over to the BSSC table, founder Pauline Dion created an opportunity for fun while keeping the educational component obvious to adults around the table. While I was there, two sisters were making hard shell sea creatures with great care. This summer will mark their third camp experience. Somehow the younger sister got corralled into demonstrating her knot-making skill. Knots included the pretzel and a bowline. Or was that a bowling knot? The point is she did and demonstrated how to make that bowling knot – in seconds flat. Both girls said they loved learning to sail and getting out on a small vessel best of all.

Meanwhile, at the next table, the Neighborhood Naturalist was for the birds, no, literally, all about birds, their habitats and our shared connection in life. The naturalist recalled photographing birds, which led to creating puzzles of the bird photos. The naturalist spoke of also striving to show that the line between the natural and human-made world is a lot less defined than we might think. For the kids visiting this table, making puzzles, of varying numbers of pieces, and learning - or knowing! - the name of each bird was all in the fun.

At the Boothbay Region Climate Action Team table, coffee filters were painted with blue and green, sprayed with water to create earth spheres in various stages of creation, maybe? Adults and older kids perused the Flood Map and areas that will be affected by higher tides and chatted with the folks from the Team.

Boothbay Region Land Trust had a most intriguing learning game: dissecting owl pellets (droppings) and matching these items with a bone ID chart. One boy, despite the “man, this is kind of yuck” face, was actually having a good time. While I was there, he removed a small bone (actually I believe Tracey Hall told him he'd removed a rib bone, and hair from some creature. There were also pelts of local critters, for touching.

Another cool table was Knox-Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District. There were soil test kits, wildflower seed samples and all manner of invasive species, and more. This group has held presentations at BRLT over the years. For the kiddoes, there was Invasive Forest Pest cornhole. What I “got into” about them were the designs on the frames (or whatever they’re called): one was painted with the bark of a white ash and the other a sugar maple. I snagged some photos of two sisters having a grand ole time playing cornhole – with shots that were competition-worthy!

Bigelow’s table craft had kids making plankton and mimicking how slowly the move to the deeper waters to keep out of sight of predators. Maine State Aquarium was on the scene with a Mako shark jawbone, coloring books and a piece of shark skin with two amazing textures: gently brushing it toward myself it felt smooth, but brushing the opposite way it was harsh, almost with a teethlike scraping sensation. Lizzie Beaver, of the MSA, explained the scraping side was caused by the shark’s derma cells that, “help them swim fast to catch your leg (or another fish, etc.) and bite it." Charming!

CMBG had all flower seeds for planting, information about horticulture, plant conservation, but that digging' in the soil while potting seeds was too tempting for the kids to resist. Something older gardeners know well.

The BHML staff was quite happy with the event: The weather could not have been better for this ninth annual Earth Day program with the sun shining down on a community event of fun and learning. Library Executive Director Joanna Breen was very pleased with the turnout, estimating 100-125 attending.

“I think because of the weather, there's a lot more staying longer this year ... Some of the people have been here since 10 (a.m.), and it's almost one now, and they're still here talking and hanging out,” Breen noted. “This is just a nice outdoor community thing that happens with so many really interesting, imaginative activities for the kids to do here. And, it's a great way to make adults aware of resources and information.”

Imagination. That’s where I have to acknowledge 10-year-old face painter/artist Miss Presley, colorizing kids for a second Earth Day. Miss Presley started facepainting at events when she was 8. Why does she do it? “It’s cool and it’s fun," she said. What was also cool was seeing various animal faces among the crowd.

Breen stressed how thankful they (BHML) were to have all of the organizations there. “They are really what makes the event so robust, right? So without the organizations that are doing this work and coming to Earth Day fest, we wouldn't have anything except our 'pucks.' This (gestures around) is like the books coming off the page,” said Breen.

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