Kenyon College - Community-wide event aims to keep you and the planet healthy

Earth Day Festival packed with fun, free activities

Community-wide event aims to keep you and the planet healthy

The annual community Earth Day Festival is back with a variety of new free activities: a life-sized Operation game, healthy cooking demonstrations, potted seeds to take home and a baby cow to pet.

The free festival and accompanying Earth Day Challenge Half Marathon and Four Miler are expected to draw at least 2,500 people on Sunday, April 19 at the Kenyon Athletic Center.

In an open space for children, they can try tumbling with Gigglenastics, a mini-fitness competition with the YMCA, an exercise ball demo with the United Way of Knox County and a science project about water filtering with SPI Spot.

The event, in its ninth year, also features free blood pressure screenings, live music and artisans selling local or upcycled products, such as bowls made of old records.

A new component this year is a series of demonstrations with the theme of “Grow-Eat-Compost-Repeat!”

AVI Fresh, which partners with Kenyon to prepare 40 percent of the college’s food needs through local sources, will present a cooking demo with seasonal produce. People can take home the recipe and potted seeds of the featured produce with the Ohio State University Extension.  

“The Earth Day Festival is unique in highlighting the direct connections between our environmental and our health. We're focusing on food because it's a great example of this intersection, it relates directly to our community, and it's something everyone cares about, since everyone has to eat,” said Heather Doherty, director of programming for the Brown Family Environmental Center at Kenyon College.

The Brown Environmental Center is sponsoring the event with three Knox County offices: the Health Department, the Park District and the OSU Extension.

Anyone with a bit of yard with sunshine can visit the Brown Environmental Center’s exhibit to learn how to help a beloved species: the monarch butterfly. The center will give away milkweed seeds and sell milkweed plants, which monarchs visit to lay their eggs. The Gund Gallery will offer butterfly face painting and a butterfly art project.

Local farmers will be there with early spring lettuces and greens, plus vegetables starts for planting, maple syrup and eggs. Doherty is hoping some asparagus will be up in time for the festival, she said.

The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. rain or shine. If it rains, tents protect the farm animals, including a mini donkey, rabbits, chickens and goats.

For more information, including a complete list of exhibitors and race registration, visit kenyon.edu/earthday. Or contact Doherty at dohertyh@kenyon.edu or 740-427-5052.

More highlights from the list of 90+ exhibitors:

AVI Fresh: food concessions featuring local meats and vegetables, including walking tacos, sausages and veggie wraps

B. Farmer Honey: hive for people to see bees at work (safely under a plastic cover)

City of Mount Vernon: model that allows visitors to "make it rain" with a spray bottle to see how to prevent pollution as rain water moves through a city to a river

Kenyon College Bookstore: Earth Day coloring books giveaway; children can help color a giant earth banner to be hung later in the store

Knox Community Hospital: The Center for Rehabilitation & Wellness will administer tests use to determine grip strength and agility for everyday functions, such as grasping a door handle or getting in and out of a car.

Knox County Recycling & Litter Prevention: make bags out of old T-shirts

McFarland’s Llama Farm: wool for knitting, rugs and socks made of a mix of llama and alpaca fiber. “The best socks I have ever owned,” festival organizer Heather Doherty says.

Ohio Farm Direct: grass-fed cheese