Earth Day 2011 Events

Staff Reports
10:20AM / Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Listed below are events marking the 41st annual Earth Day. All events take place on Saturday, April 23, unless otherwise noted. Don’t see your event here? Send it to info@iberkshires.com.

Environmental humanist Lawrence Buell will talk on “Uses and Abuses of Environmental Memory” at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 20, in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall on the Williams College campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Buell, a literature professor at Harvard, is the author of “Writing for an Endangered World: Literature, Culture, and the Environment in the United States and Beyond,” which won the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations’ Cawelti Prize for the best book of 2001 in the field of American Cultural Studies. More information is available here.

On Friday, April 22, from 3 to 5 p.m., Northern Berkshire Community Coalition will present “An Earth Day Community Forum,” at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ Murdock Hall, Room 218. MCLA President Mary K. Grant will open the discussion, which will be moderated by MCLA sophomore Jason Brown. Other participants include North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright, Wendy Penner of the Center for Eco Technology, Courtney Tunis, education coordinator at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Bruce Winn of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team, and Caroline Scully, coordinator of the MCLA Berkshire Environmental Resource Center. The event is free and open to the public; refreshments will be served. For more information, go to www.mcla.edu.

Voting for student artwork submitted to Goodwill’s “Go Goodwill Green” contest is open to the public from April 22-23, from 9 to 6 each day. Artwork will be on display throughout Goodwill’s locations in Pittsfield, Adams and Bennington, Vt., through May 1. For more information, call 413-442-0061.

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., you can help clean up and restore the Great Barrington Housatonic River Walk, —planting native plants propagated from seed collected locally, ridding the river bank of knotweed, bittersweet, garlic mustard, multiflora rose and other exotic-invasives, repairing and maintaining trails, and cleaning the river bottom. Volunteers will meet at the W. E. B. Du Bois River Garden Park by the former Searles Middle School parking lot on River Street, near Bridge Street. Morning coffee and lunch will be provided. Tours will be given in the afternoon. For more information, go to www.gbriverwalk.org, contact Rachel Fletcher at 413-528-3391, or e-mail river@gbriverwalk.org.

Berkshire Community College, 1350 West St., Pittsfield, will host a variety of environmental education events at its Earth Day Fair, from 10 to 2. The Center for EcoTechnology will be onsite collecting paper for recycling, offering a free home composting workshop, collecting textiles and clothing, taking orders for rain barrels, distributing energy-efficient lighting, and signing up residents interested in making their homes more energy efficient through the Mass Save program. The fair also will feature nature hikes, other workshops, food and music.  For more information, contact Jamie Cahillane at jamiec@cetonline.org or call 413-445-4556, Ext. 14. Visit the Events page on www.cetonline.org for more detailed information about the day’s activities.

Wild Oats Market, 320 Main St., Williamstown, will hold a free Earth Day celebration from noon to 4 p.m., with kids’ crafts, samples from local food producers, workshops, and the co-op’s first barbecue of the season, featuring local and organic foods on the grill. Local and regional organizations and businesses with an environmental focus, such as The Northern Berkshire Beekeepers Association,  the Williamstown COOL Committee and Berkshire Photovoltaic Services, will also participate in the event. General Manager Michael Faber will lead a composting workshop at 2 p.m.; short talks on how to get started with beekeeping will be scheduled throughout the day.

Other highlights include a visit from the baby goats of Polymeadows Farm in Shaftsbury, Vt., a family-friendly workshop on building a Berkshire Mason Bee box out of reclaimed scraps, and a plant sale. Anyone who rides their bicycle to the event will receive a Free Long Trail Brewery tote bag with their purchases. For more information, go to www.wildoats.coop.

First Congregational Church of Lee and the not-for-profit organization Healing Winds will co-host “Creating a Community in Concert” in the Lee Park at the First Congregational Church from noon to 6 p.m. Ten other local organizations will come together to demonstrate their commitment to community and environmental sustainability and to honor the earth. The event will include music, entertainment, education, food, presentations and workshops. For more information, contact call Healing Winds at 413-443-2481 or the First Congregational Church of Lee at 413-243-1033 or email humanityinconcert@earthlink.net.

From 6 to 11 p.m., The Guthrie Center, 4 Van Deusenville Road, Great Barrington, will host “Honor the Housatonic,” a benefit for Housatonic River environmental organizations. The event will feature live music and a poetry slam. Admission is $25 for adults, $10 for children 12 and younger. For more information, call 413-528-1955 or go here.