Piedmont Earth Day Fair

Fourth annual Piedmont Earth Day Fair draws record crowd of 7,000 to learn more about environmentally friendly habits.

Winston-Salem, NC - A record crowd of approximately 7,000 people attended the fourth annual Piedmont Earth Day Fair on Saturday, April 18, 2009 on the campus of Wake Forest University. The Fair included 140 booth spaces representing over 120 exhibitors. Activities included five panel discussions, nine demonstrations, a stationary green car parade, green jobs booth, 12 children’s activities, entertainment all day on the main stage, an all-natural food court and more. Generous sponsors, 150 volunteers and sunny, warm weather helped make the day a success.

The fourth annual Piedmont Earth Day Fair was a free, “zero-waste challenge” event. “Zero-waste challenge” refers to the goal of managing materials such that the waste generated at the event will be as close to zero as possible. This is done via recycling management and guidelines on exhibitor items allowed at the event. In total there were only two bags of trash generated from this large event. The remainder of what would have been trash was recycled or composted.

The 2009 Piedmont Earth Day Fair, presented by Piedmont Environmental Alliance (PEA), is the largest Earth Day event in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The mission of PEA is to facilitate environmental sustainability in the Piedmont Triad community through education, networking, and outreach. PEA hopes to inform children and adults how to make sustainable choices – choices that create a positive impact on the Earth.

Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, Corolla

These three junior volunteers visited the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education in Corolla. Here they are checking on the worm composting bins. After they left the center, they went to their Grandma's and helped install a rain barrell!

National Environmental Education Week and Earth Day in N.C.

It's been a record year for Environmental Education Week and Earth Day Events in North Carolina. Program providers and individuals from around the state are sharing news and photos of their events and experiences.

Since 2004, the National Environmental Education Foundation, a private, congressionally authorized non-profit organization dedicated to the strategic advancement of environmental literacy and education, has coordinated the implementation of National EE Week, which occurs the week preceeding Earth Day. This year, the event was sponsored by Walmart with Canon as a contributing sponsor.

The N.C. Office of Environmental Education is promoting EE Week and Earth Day-related programs and events statewide in April using its Web site, www.eenorthcarolina.org. On the Web site, individuals can use an online calendar to see the state’s environmental education activities. Visitors can search for any Environmental Education Center in the state, and teachers can search for environmental education resources to use in the classroom tailored to different ages and subjects.