The second annual Estes Park EarthFest will be held Jan. 17, 2009, at the YMCA of the Rockies.
Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, in cooperation with the YMCA of the Rockies, PaCK, Eco-Tech, Sustainable Mountain Living and numerous other individuals and organizations, invites public participation in a winter green festival honoring the blue planet — Mother Earth.
Year two of this festival will continue to focus on the following themes and areas of emphasis: 1) encouraging and supporting conservation and sustainable community culture; 2) creating the environment and momentum for diversity and collaboration, frugality, and peaceful, harmonious living; and 3) raising funds for local, national and global service-learning projects dedicated to a sustainable eco-culture.
In these times, Eagle Rock students, among others, are expressing their concern for the future of our planet. They are making connections between personal choices and global issues and have made it clear that they are not satisfied with continuing the status quo. Issues such as energy and material consumption, climate change, environmental degradation, the insensitive leveraging of resources by a wasteful financial and economic system that is wracking the world and the use of organized warfare as a means of solving human problems are being called into question.
Students today want change. Their attention has been drawn to the relationship between the human population’s growth in size and resource consumption and a degraded natural environment that includes rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as well as signs of global warming, such as: pine beetle infestation now spreading throughout the Rocky Mountains; receding glaciers in Montana, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Antarctica; reduced snowfall and ice-pack; more damaging wildfires; altered life cycles; drought; rising temperatures; more powerful hurricanes; and other striking effects appearing around the world.
The Eagle Rock students are thinking the time has come to embrace a different way of life. They invite the public to join them for the Second Annual Estes EarthFest, to help make the move from awareness to action for planetary stewardship, sustainable living and a more harmonious world.
“We are calling upon your participation for two reasons: 1) to share in the diverse expression of humanity seeking sustainable culture; 2) to learn new ways to practice sustainability through education and community action,” a student representative said.
“Can we make a difference? Can we learn from each other? Can we work together? Can we live in greater harmony with one another and the Earth? We believe the answer to these questions is a resounding, ‘Yes!’ Come to the festival, meet others, have fun, celebrate community and find your own answer through participation and engagement. Help foster a proactive attitude toward change. Help make Estes EarthFest a success,” the student said.
• Register for a presentation or exhibit sharing culture, resources, products, ideas or interests
• Register to perform in the Talent Show
• Become a sponsor for the festival
• Spread the word: Attend the Estes Earth Fest on Jan. 17, 2009.
• Put the date on your calendar and attend with your family and friends.
• Check out the Weblog at: estesearthfest.wordpress.com.
For more information, contact: Estes Earth Fest Committee, Eagle Rock School, 2750 Notaiah, Rd., Estes Park, CO 80517, call (970) 586-7115, fax (970) 586-7111 or e-mail jguffey@eaglerockschool.org.
The Estes EarthFest will include exhibits and workshops, in Exhibit Hall, from noon to 5 p.m.
A Slow Food Dinner will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., followed by a Talent Show, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
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