2020 commemorates the 20th anniversary of the City of Lawrence sponsored Earth Day Celebration and the 50th celebration of Earth Day worldwide! To honor the tradition of this historic event bringing Lawrence together in community, and to acknowledge that for our community to recover from COVID-19 we need to care for each other as well as the planet, Lawrence and Douglas County hosted a week-long series of community-driven workshops, activities, and resources that you can access from the safety of your home. We featured yoga, gardening, community care, poetry workshops and more! Join us in celebrating, educating, and cultivating community!
Read the Earth Week Proclamation from Mayor of Lawrence, Jennifer Ananda.
Read the Earth Week Proclamation from the Board of County Commissioners of Douglas County.
Read an Earth Day Dedication from Chair of the Board of County Commissioners of Douglas County, Patrick Kelly.
FEATURED EARTH DAY EVENTS
Celebrate Self-Care!
This class leans towards a gentle beginners style with some options to go deeper into certain poses. We take it slow and give attention to breath-work as we move. Set up a yoga mat if you have one (a thick towel for padding if not) and additionally please have handy two thick blankets or towels.
Sally Birmingham is a Lawrence area yoga instructor with 200hr Registered Yoga Teacher Certification and 15hr Trauma Informed Yoga Certification. Other interests of Sally’s include art, sustainable farming, herbal medicine, and organizing with Girls Rock Lawrence.
You can find Sally’s and other classes currently offered online, including free community yoga on Mondays, at Be Moved Studio. Contact Sally: sbirmi@gmail.com
Home Gardening for Health and Self-Sufficiency
Farmer and educator, Pantaleon Florez III helps first time gardeners understand the basics of growing their own food. We discuss seed starting, soil health, and breakdown all that farmer jargon on the back of seed packets. We also touch on issues of food security, food sovereignty, and people power.
Pantaleon Florez III is a farmer, independent researcher, and educator who runs Maseualkualli Farms in North Lawrence. The farm is a no-till and no fossil fuel project that produces fruit, veggies, and many kinds of herbs. For information on no-contact, weekly produce delivery text the farm line at 785-274-9848.
Tour the PermaCommons
The PermaCommons is a cooperatively-managed permaculture demonstration garden in east Lawrence. The garden is part of the Common Ground program, which turns under-utilized City land into food-growing gardens.
In this video, garden manager, Laura O’Dell takes us on a tour of PermaCommons, explains the benefits of permaculture, and how the community can get learn from and get involved in the garden.
For more on the PermaCommons email Laura: lodell01@gmail.com.
Energy Options for Kansas Residents
Lawrence-Douglas County Sustainability Director, Jasmin Moore interviews Dorothy Barnett, Executive Director of the Climate + Energy Project about the status of renewable energy in Kansas and tips for saving money on energy bills.
As Executive Director of the Climate + Energy Project, Dorothy Barnett is leading the effort to address the Heartland’s energy future. With an approach based on finding common-ground solutions, Barnett has been successful in convening diverse voices in a conservative region of the country. Barnett has coordinated winning campaigns to protect the Kansas Renewable Portfolio Standard from special interest group attacks during four legislative sessions, allowing the wind industry to grow to 30% of the state’s power generation in just a decade.
Community Care
In this presentation, Dr. Gilbert teaches a new paradigm for understanding and practicing True Power, and how to process difficult emotions, which then become the foundation for empowered action in the face of pandemic or climate crisis.
Dr. Barbara Gilbert is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Lawrence. She also has experience with community psychology interventions—interventions designed to improve the psychological health or better functioning of a community, to serve the well being of those who live there. She co-founded True Power for Climate Recovery in 2019 as a community intervention to help Lawrence-Douglas County community members address eco-distress. Many of the concepts and skills to address eco-distress apply to a large scale problem like the pandemic we now find ourselves in. Please contact Dr. Gilbert with any questions about her presentation: barbaraj.gilbertphd@gmail.com
How to Help During COVID-19
Lea Roselyn, VP of Community Impact for the United Way of Douglas County, shares 4 ways you can make a difference in your community during COVID-19.
The United Way of Douglas County fights for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in Douglas County. The mission is fighting poverty and improving lives by Uniting Douglas County. To learn more about the United Way, go to www.unitedwaydgco.org
Finding Creativity During COVID-19, a Poetry Workshop
This session is in connection with the long history of poetry at Earth Day. Mercedes Lucero will offer poetry as a way to work through COVID-19 stressors, and guide viewers through creative writing and expression.
Mercedes Lucero is the author of Stereometry (2018, Another New Calligraphy), an interactive poetic curriculum that uses arithmetic’s orderliness to manage a time filled with loss and near loss. She is also the author of the chapbook In the Garden of Broken Things (2016, Flutter Press), which includes “The Possible Causes of Your Suffering,” a finalist for Glimmer Train’s “Very Short Fiction” Award. She is the winner of the 2017 Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award for Poetry and has received several Pushcart Prize nominations. In 2017, she received honors from KC Studio, a lifestyle magazine dedicated to art and culture in Kansas City. Her poem, “I wonder why they never taught us about Sylvia Mendez,” was a finalist for the Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry and her piece “Model Survivors,” published by Jellyfish Review was recently selected by Hanif Abdurraqib to be included in the 2019 Best of the Net Anthology. Other work of hers has been featured on The Project on the History of Black Writing and published widely including in New Orleans Review, New Ohio Review, Puerto del Sol, Fourteen Hills, Paper Darts, The Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row Journal, The Pinch, and Heavy Feather Review among others.
Earth Art Activity for all Ages
Celebrate Earth Day with an art activity anyone can do! All supplies provided by nature. Click on the picture below for instructions.
MORE WAYS TO CELEBRATE IN DOUGLAS COUNTY!
- ATTEND A BIRTHDAY PARTY with Watkins Museum of History
- Earth Day 50th Birthday Party – Wednesday, April 22nd from 10AM-4PM
- Tune in to the Watkins Museum of History Facebook page for a series of videos from the Watkins and partners celebrating the history and meaning of Earth Day.
- New videos will go up every hour with activities and natural wonders for the whole family!
- Earth Day 50th Birthday Party – Wednesday, April 22nd from 10AM-4PM
- PUT A SPOTLIGHT ON CARE with The KU Commons
- Core and Stretch Yoga – Monday, April 20th @12PM
- Take a break from your desk and join us for a yoga session to help you get moving and to relax. Led by Wanwan Cai, yoga instructor at OmTree Shala
- Join online or by phone: http://thecommons.ku.edu/event/895
- Divination, Poetry, and Interspecies Collaboration: Sustaining Practices In Times of Uncertainty and Change – Wednesday, April 22nd @ 12PM
- This session will focus on building comtemplative and creative practices to find meaningful connection in times of uncertainty. Join poet and professor of English, Megan Kaminski in an introduction to eco-poetics, divination, and plant thinking.
- Join online or by phone: http://thecommons.ku.edu/event/894
- Core and Stretch Yoga – Monday, April 20th @12PM
- PLANT A TREE with Black Hills Energy and Arbor Day Foundation – Wednesday, April 22nd
- Planting a tree is a great way to spend time in the great outdoors while looking toward the future, which is why this Earth Day, Black Hills Energy is giving away more than 100 free trees in Lawrence. Beginning on Wednesday, April 22, customers can claim a tree through our partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation’s Energy-Saving Trees Initiative. Visit: www.arborday.org/blackhillsenergy for notifications and to reserve your tree!
- SUPPORT CLEAN ENERGY
- Check out Evergy’s renewable energy resources, including shared energy mix, private installations, and their Clean Charge Network.
- Watch “Making the Connections: Climate Change in Kansas” hosted by Climate + Energy Project. The series shares the perspective of 14 different Non-Profit Organizations in Kansas and how each organization and the communities they serve are impacted by climate change.
- TAKE A TREE TOUR of South Park or Lawrence Rotary Arboretum
- Together these sites are home to more than 50 species of trees!
- Access an interactive map of each site to take a self-guided tour. How many species can you find?
- READ A BOOK
- The Lawrence Public Library has created several book lists to celebrate Earth Day all year round. Bookmark these titles for when the library reopens, currently scheduled for May 17th.
- Kids: Environment, Climate, and Sustainability Non-fiction Titles
- Kids: Environment, Climate, and Sustainability Fiction Titles
- Kids: Environment, Climate, and Sustainability Picture Books
- Young Adults: Environment, Climate, and Sustainability Non-fiction Titles
- Teens: Eco-fiction and Climate-fiction Titles
- Adults: True Power for Climate Recovery Titles
- The Lawrence Public Library has created several book lists to celebrate Earth Day all year round. Bookmark these titles for when the library reopens, currently scheduled for May 17th.
For questions about Earth Day 2020, contact pramirez@douglascountyks.org
To view photos of last year’s Earth Day Parade & Celebration, click here!
Previous Earth Day Reports