TEMPLE UNIVERSITY AMBLER AND PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY PARTNER FOR EARTHFEST 2004
Do
you know how solar power works? Or how to clean up your backyard stream?
Do you have an interest in the environment or a green thumb of your own?
Learn
how to make everyday Earth Day at Temple University Ambler EarthFest 2004.
This outdoor educational celebration will be held Thursday, April 22, from
9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine, at the Temple University Ambler
campus, 580 Meetinghouse Road. EarthFest is free and open to the public.
“About
1,500 people spent Earth Day with us last year,” said Dr. Jeffrey
Featherstone, director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at Temple
University Ambler, which hosts the event. “We’re very pleased to
announce that this year will be bigger and better thanks to a partnership
with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) that will essentially
double the size of the event.”
The
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Kids Grow Expo, which includes the
Junior Flower Show, will be part of EarthFest for the first time this
year. With the theme “Bugs ‘n’ Buds,” the Expo will give students
of all ages a chance to show their “green” stuff.
“Since
1975, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has been sponsoring a flower
show for young people, inviting ‘budding’ horticulturists to develop a
green thumb and to demonstrate their creativity,” said Flossie Narducci,
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Special Events Coordinator. “The Kids
Grow Expo presents an opportunity to inspire the next generation of
gardeners. Competitive classes give children from nursery school through
high school an opportunity to experience the thrill of growing and
competing.”
There
are plenty of categories in which students will be competing from
“butterfly motels” and “litterbug scarecrows” to “garbage
gardening, ” which will have participants growing plants right from the
fruit seeds in their kitchen.
More
than 3,500 elementary, middle, and high school students are expected to
visit EarthFest on April
22 interacting with more than 60 exhibitors. Exhibitors for 2004 include
the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Sierra Club, 10,000 Friends,
and many others.
Want
to check out the latest products to make your home environmentally
friendly or find out just what career path you can follow if you want to
help protect and preserve the environment? Or maybe you’d like to learn
how to protect animal habitats or how to use the latest Geographic
Information Systems mapping software? EarthFest 2004 and the Kids Grow
Expo has all of this and much more.
EarthFest
will also provide a showcase for Temple University Ambler’s Department
of Community and Regional Planning, the Department of Landscape
Architecture and Horticulture, and the campus landscape arboretum. A
special “Gardener’s Market” plant sale at the campus will also be
featured. Students from the Temple University Tyler School of Art will
also share a performance on recycled instruments in addition to leading
visitors in creating “recycled art.”
“This
is a program that will open up a field of possible careers that students
typically are not exposed to,” said Temple University Ambler Landscape
Architecture and Horticulture Department Chair Dr. Lolly Tai. “It’s
one thing to read a brochure, but it’s another to actually visit the
campus, see, and experience what we are doing and talk with students who
are currently in the programs.”
Schools
from throughout the area will not only be visiting EarthFest, they will be
sharing their own exhibits as well. Ten schools will present information
on a variety of topics, including alternative energy sources, protecting
endangered species, environmental artwork, and Global Positioning Systems.
Students will also present a “Trash Fashion Show,” and an Earth Day
play.
“The
response that we’ve received from schools this year has been
overwhelming. We
are very pleased that so many students are interested in environmental
issues and the sustainable community movement,” said
Temple University Ambler Dean Dr. Sophia T. Wisniewska. “I’m also
excited about the active role our student organizations here on campus are
taking. They’ll be helping to teach visitors about a variety of
environmental concepts through fun, interactive games and exhibits.”
In
addition to the Center for Sustainable Communities, event sponsors for
2004 include the Ambler College Alumni Association, the Delaware Valley
Regional Planning Commission’s Ozone Action program, Johnson Controls,
Upper Dublin Township, and Wachovia Wealth Management.
For
more information on EarthFest 2004, call 215-283-1291 or send e-mail to earthfest@temple.edu.
Visit www.ambler.temple.edu/earthfest for more information and an updated
list of EarthFest exhibitors.
For
more information on the Kids Grow Expo or the Junior Flower Show, please
contact Flossie Narducci at 215-988-8897 or fnarducci@pennhort.org.
CONTACT: James Duffy, (215) 283-1290, duffyj@temple.edu, release available by e-mail
