Earth Day?
Does anybody still care about Earth Day?
And does everyone agree that the best place to celebrate this Sunday is Oscar Scherer State Park?
I wasn’t sure about these things, so I called Karen Fraley at Around the Bend Nature Tours.
She didn’t hesitate.
“Absolutely,” Fraley said. “Someone was asking the other day where to go on Earth Day and that was the answer, hands down.
“The park is free and they have folk music there, which is great. There’s a lot of stuff going on. The tie-dyed guy wasn’t there last year, but I’m hoping he’ll be back, too.”
I told Fraley that she had me at the word “free,” though I’d like to see the tie-dyed guy, too.
It’s hard to pass up free admission, free music and free fun and games at the Osprey state park. Also free tram tours and kayak demonstrations.
Plus festival food and arts and crafts for sale.
Noon hand-holding
The 26th annual Earth Day celebration will begin at 10 a.m. Sunday. Organizers expect about a few thousand people.
Fraley will lead tours for kids and families at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. Park manager Tony Clements will perform his puppet show for kids at 1:30 p.m.
“It’s our turn to lead,” is the theme for Earth Day this year. “Join, share, act.”
At noon, people will hold hands and form a ring along Lake Osprey at the park nature center. Most years, the ring reaches a third of the way around the lake.
Clements would like to complete the circle one day.
“That’s my goal,” he says. “We’d probably need about 1,000 people holdings hands.”
Osprey tradition
In the 1980s and ‘90s, Oscar Scherer became a leader in Earth Day celebrations.
“It was Bobbie Rogers, she was one of the rangers, and Laurel Scherer, she was one of the Friends of Oscar Scherer, who got it going,” Clements says. “This brings awareness and get people outdoors.”
You hear so much today about what’s going on in the world, and it gets back to the grass-roots effort that we can all make a difference.”
Over the years, Earth Day has become an Osprey tradition.
People return year after year. So do vendors who sell everything from nature photographs to tie-dyed T-shirts.
“I don’t know if it’s the same one,” Clements says, laughing, “but there will be a tie-dyed vendor this year.”
Interested?
The 26th annual Earth Day celebration will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Oscar Scherer State Park, 1843 S. Tamiami Trail, Osprey. Park admission is free, as is folk music and fun and games for kids and families. friendsofoscarscherer.com. 483-5956.
