2017 Earth Day Fair & Parade

Saturday, April 22, 2017

The Parade

Join The Environmental Center for a fun and festive celebration of the natural world! Our day of festivities kicks off with a colorful, creative parade filled with children and adults costumed as their favorite plant or animal. Get ready for the parade by creating your own costume! (Scroll below)

11:00 am: Assemble on Louisiana Avenue next to McMenamin’s

11:30am: Parade starts (about 8 blocks through downtown Bend and ends at the Earth Day Fair)

No motorized vehicles or written words allowed in the parade. Well-behaved dogs on leashes are allowed.

Parade Costumes

The Environmental Center has partnered with local artists Teafly Peterson and Christian Brown to enhance our annual Earth Day Fair & Parade – and we want you to be involved! Teafly and Christian are creating two 8’ tall “Earth Guardians” (image to the right). Each Guardian will be a unique large-scale puppet that represents our thriving environment, brought to life by friends of TEC. During the Earth Day Parade, we will reveal the RIVER Guardian and the FOREST Guardian.

With this new project, The Earth Day Parade has the potential to be bigger & better than it ever has before. That’s where you come in – by creating your own unique costume with your class, organization or community group! Choose anything in nature that makes you happy. It can be specific or general – i.e. tree, salmon, eagle, waterfalls, mushrooms, etc. Then create a costume, whether it’s a simple mask or a whole creative ensemble. Bring your group to participate in the parade, show off your costumes and meet the Guardians! Email Lauren to get involved and for more information.

We will also provide you with a hand-crafted muslin banner to carry during the parade. Based on what costume you choose, the banner will speak to your creature or plant choice. (These are the only written words allowed in the parade.)

The Fair

Following the parade, there will be live music, art, local businesses, a variety of food, interactive displays and great hands-on activities for all ages. The fair takes place on Kansas Avenue in front of The Environmental Center (downtown Bend).

Book Drive for the Learning Garden’s Little Library

The Daughters of the American Revolution are dedicated to historical preservation, patriotism, and education. Locally, the Bend DAR Chapter promotes education by giving out books to youth in our community. They approached us with the idea to build and maintain a “Free Little Library” in our Kansas Ave. Learning Garden, stocked with youth books geared towards nature and our environment. Help us create a collection of books ready to go for Earth Day! Please drop off books between now and April 22nd.  And be sure to join us in the garden during the Earth Day Fair at 1:00 p.m. as we officially open the library with a ribbon cutting!

Electric Vehicle Ride & Drive 

How far can you really go? Are they even fast? Can I fit my whole family in the car? These are all  questions that you can easily answer for yourself by just driving an electric vehicle! Come get all your EV questions answered and learn about Central Oregon’s new Electric Vehicle Group Buy Program. More information can be found here.

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