by Earth Day Orcas

Islanders are joining hands to celebrate Earth Day in meaningful and joyful activities as a way to honor our amazing blue and green planet and also to sound-out our concerns and solutions for the challenges we face on local and global levels. On Orcas Island, a team of over 24 local organizations and individuals are celebrating Earth Day through art, ecology, science, music, dance, poetry, stories, parade, food and ceremonies.

Earth Day Orcas will be weaving through Eastsound with a variety of fun learning and celebratory experiences and welcomes the community to participate.

Friday, April 19th, the Earth Day festivities begin with a Poetry Reading at Emmanuel Episcopal Church that features Jill McCabe Johnson, Quinn Bailey, and Derek Sheffield, authors of acclaimed individual works and anthologies of ecology poetry and writings. The doors open at 6:30 pm for this reverential sharing of the written word through voice, music, and a concluding luminaria lighting on the labyrinth. Darvill’s Bookstore is hosting the book signing in Benson Hall, music by David Roth, and host is Debra Lee Babcock, our Washington State Ferry Writer in Residence.

Saturday morning, April 20th, a Procession of the Species Parade trumpets the full day of Earth Day activities, taking to the streets to celebrate the wonderful animals, plants and natural resources of our blue green home (and imagination). Opening with an Earth Day storytelling by Jenny DeGroot at the public library at 10:30, the Parade assembles on the back lawn at the library starting at 11am and the procession heads down to North Beach Rd at 11:30am. Passing through Eastsound to Main Street, the Earth Day Orcas Parade culminates at Emmanuel Episcopal Church at noon. The 40’ Kingfisher wooden canoe will join the parade as a voice of the island’s indigenous cultures. Earth Day theme costumes and revelers of all ages welcome.

On the grounds of Emmanuel, from noon to 5pm, and stretching this year down along the waterfront to the park at the entry to Eastsound, celebrants are taking part in a lively Eco Fair, art and sculpture exhibits, a local plant identification walk, hands-on arts and science projects, a community soup lunch, music, community drumming and dancing, educational games and film, and kinetic art works honoring our amazing natural world. Artists Zack Leck and Maria Bullock are developing special sculpture features, Planetary Dance leader Hayley Shannon invites community celebrants to attend a circle dance with opening prayer by Rosie Cayou James, and the day’s music will be provided by Clint McCune and friends, Burke Mulvaney, Josie Dow and Joel Gamble.

In the Emmanuel Parish Hall and during the afternoon events, representatives from the Swinomish 13 Moons Project and the Lummi Gathering of the Eagles Canoe Family will share educational resources and are joined by Rosie Cayou James of the Samish. The Eco Fair features the San Juan County Land Bank, The Orcas Garden Club, Orcas Community Participatory Agriculture, the San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild, Black Cap Restoration, The Orcas Seed Project, The Funhouse Science Fair, and the Camp Orkila marine science program. Sea Doc is sharing marine guide resources, Orcas Food Rescue and OCPA are serving a local foods sampler, and the Funhouse and Camp Orkila are hosting activities for kids. Adult eco board games are also at play in the Parish Hall with a special premier test copy of the We all Take from the River.

In advance of the day’s merriment, community members are invited to join the Great Island Clean-up by picking up a bag and grabbers from the Exchange through Pete Moe and gathered plastics can be delivered to the Exchange ahead of the weekend celebrations, or on the Green, 10-2pm. Master Gardeners and Kwiaht are also hosting a special heritage fruit tree activity on the Green in conjunction with the Orcas Historical Museum that is re-opening after its restoration of the original island cabins.

New Film Festival Online. Honoring our Planet Earth – its beauty and its perils – continues through the week thanks to the new Earth Day Island Film Fest, running April 19-28th, presented in collaborative with the Friday Harbor Film Festival. Two thought provoking feature films and 6 shorts will be available for streaming at no cost from your home computer or phone. Award winning films and educational shorts are on topics relevant to the Salish Sea, including salmon recovery, indigenous cultural traditions and ecological protests, orca whales, and the marble butterfly. Information on the films is available online.

To get a film fest pass, or learn more about the Earth Day Orcas poetry, parade, festival and film activities, see sanjuanmakersguild.com/Earthday24.