Happy Earth Day 2013

Today is officially Earth Day, though Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown have been celebrating for weeks now. And by celebrating, I also mean working really hard. 

From the new Friends of the RiverWalk work day to Morse School's student-oriented celebration, from the Little Gardens to the big "village-wide" clean up, there is no shortage of love for the environment in our villages. 

Tarrytown Lakes Committee Chairperson Cathy Ruhland gave their Saturday clean-up portion of the village-wide event an enthusiastic thumbs up:

We had our best clean-up ever. We had people who picked up trash, people who trimmed bushes of invasive vines, people who cut huge vines out of trees, people who pulled branches out of the storm water catchment basin next to the lakes' parking lot, people who chain-sawed dead trees and removed them from the storm water catchment basin. We had drivers taking groups of participants to further off locations, such as the park and ride parking lot over by the Eastview Pumphouse, Tower Hill Rd., the Eastview Pumphouse.

All this, and they even enjoyed a post-clean up concert. Ruhland writes, "we had trumpeters, we had a fabulous singer and guitarist. And all this under sunny, not too hot skies. Thank you to all who participated! We could not have done it without you!"

Among the volunteers, the Lakes boasted: over 60 EF students, 10 public school students, 13 from nearby IAHD, 17 from the community. Not including the performers and their audience, with blue bags of collected trash before them and the beautiful lake behind them.

Thanks too go to Mark Fry, of course, writes Ruhland, for the many behind-the-scenes things that go into these events. 

Anyone else involved in a clean-up day/Earth Celebration in either village, either recently or coming up? Share in the comments. Have photos? Upload them here!

Here are more events to come:

On Saturday, May 4 in Sleepy Hollow is the Douglas Park 'I Love My Park' Clean Up Day, part of the state-wide parks beautification initiative. 

"Volunteer on May 4th and be a part of this exciting, new statewide event to improve and enhance New York’s state parks and historic sites and bring visibility to the entire state park system. Come lend a hand ! Help us prepare the park and playground for the season. Bring snacks, picnic lunch - gardening gloves and insect repellent."

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Also this Saturday (note the date change; was originally scheduled for May 12) Sleepy Hollow's Community Garden opening celebration, with the Mayor grilling lunch for volunteers. Event goes from 10 a.m. to noon, with face painting, craft project, BBQ. Villagers will clean up Sykes park, Valley and Cortlandt Streets, meeting before and after at the garden at College and Valley streets.

Organizers write: "We are also looking for volunteers to bring plants to donate and participate with the maintenance (watering the garden), planting and distribution of the garden’s growing goods. Anything planted in the garden is to be shared amongst all in the community. There will be other events in the future."

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On Saturday,  May 11 - Kinglands Point Park Cleanup and Riverkeepers Sweep (Pocantico head waters at Kingsland by kayak, or in Tarrytown at Green Street). For more information on the Riverkeepers Sweep, click here.

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