With Earth Day on Saturday, various efforts in the Twin Cities are being made to raise awareness for the environment. Events include a citywide clean up in St. Paul, the Adopt-A-Drain program, a sidewalk chalk art program and more.
For the whole family
The Pictures, Poems, and Plays! sidewalk chalk art event is happening Saturday, all day long. The Gateway Brown’s Creek Trail Association in Grant is inviting community members of all ages to celebrate the earth by bringing bags to collect trash and bringing their own sidewalk chalk to create art. They ask that anyone participating wears bright colors, stays in groups, and to “fill the trail with pictures, poems, and playful sentiments,” along the Gateway Brown’s Creek Trail.
For the cleanup crews
The city of St. Paul is hosting its annual citywide spring cleanup event Saturday and inviting community members to volunteer in helping collect bags, trash, litter, and more. This event will be from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Volunteers, along with city staff and other organizations, will come together to scatter across St. Paul in order to clean up trash. There are 25 sites to choose from where volunteers can go to collect gloves and bags before heading out. The sites can be found on the project’s website.
For the science enthusiast
Residents from across the state are encouraged to take part in the Adopt-A-Drain program, created by Hamline University’s Center for Global Environmental Education, in an effort to keep drains clean while also collecting data. Volunteers can register to adopt a drain near them and spend about 15 minutes a week clearing leaves, debris, trash, and more off the grates, preventing it from entering surrounding bodies of water. After the quick task of clearing anything blocking the drain, the CGEE asks that every volunteer reports what types of debris found into an online database for others, even beyond the state of Minnesota, to look at. Those interested can go to the Adopt-A-Drain’s website to find a drain near them and help contribute to the already more than 580,000 pounds of debris collected and 12,000 adopted drains.
For the fashionista
The Mall of America and Repowered, a electronics recycling company, are partnering to host a robot-inspired fashion show at 1 p.m., Saturday, at MOA’s North Atrium. With the guideline of having submissions be made of 25% recycled electronic materials, volunteer tech and fashion designers will create and model looks and creations related to the theme of robots on the runway. Former Project Runway stars Samantha Rei and Christopher Straub will judge the presented looks. In addition to the fashion show, Repowered will have a free electronic recycling drop-off area the same day but in the east parking lot. Items accepted include computers, tablets, and cellphones.
