Sleepy Hollow To Celebrate Earth Month With Eco-Minded Events

SLEEPY HOLLOW, NY — A series of free events will be held in Sleepy Hollow to celebrate not only Earth Day on April 22 but also Earth Month.

The Sleepy Hollow Environmental Advisory Committee (SHEAC) organized the events during which there will be opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to team up with their neighbors to help our local environment and learn about eco-practices that can be incorporated into day-to-day living.

Earth friendly events include:

• April 8, 10 a.m. - noon at Peabody Preserve: Welcome the Pollinators! (611 N Broadway, Sleepy Hollow) Come and help prepare the Pollinator & Butterfly Garden for Spring by weeding, thinning out the perennials, and more. Bring gloves, pruning tools, and shovels; if you’d like to bring home seedlings from the garden, bring plastic pots, too.
• April 15, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.: Repair Cafe (The Neighborhood House, 43 Wildey Street, Tarrytown, behind Patriot’s Park) Bring those fix-it items collecting dust in your home to our village’s first ever Repair Cafe. Repair Cafes are free community events that aim to keep our stuff out of the trash through volunteer fixers, menders, tinkerers, and people who just love to take things apart and put them back together again. We will have volunteers on hand to repair bikes, lamps, jewelry, textiles, appliances, electronics, and much more.
• April 22, 10 a.m. - noon at Peabody Preserve: Calling the Trail Crew! (611 N Broadway, Sleepy Hollow)Help ensure that our trails are safe and welcoming to students and teachers who will visit throughout the Spring. Bring gloves and shovels if you have any.
• April 22, 10 a.m. - noon: SHEAC Annual Earth Day Litter Cleanup event (pre-registration required): SHEAC is partnering with a local Girl Scout troop to clean the streets of downtown Sleepy Hollow. SHEAC volunteers will meet at Reverend Sykes Park (the corner of Valley St. and Wildey St.) at 10 a.m., and proceed up Valley Street together. Wear comfortable shoes and clothes, and bring gardening gloves if you have them. Volunteer spots are limited; register here.
• April 22, noon: SHEAC Earth Day Celebration in Barnhart Park: (25 Andrews Ln, Sleepy Hollow) Whether you spend your Earth Day morning volunteering in Peabody, downtown or elsewhere, join us to celebrate a job well done! SHEAC will provide pizza, drinks and snacks until they run out. We'll have information about environmental initiatives in our Village, from the food scraps composting program to our safe streets study and more.
• April 23, 3 p.m.: Environmental Storytime at Sleepy Hollow Bookshop (95 Beekman Ave, Sleepy Hollow) Come join us for wonderful children's stories about nature and the environment.

Of note, SHEAC Earth Month organizers said they were delighted to be hosting the village’s first Repair Cafe on April 15.

"We’re so excited to welcome Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow to the Repair Cafe Hudson Valley network,” said Suzie Fromer, coordinator, Repair Cafe Hudson Valley. “I’m a Rivertowns resident and am so proud to see the program growing here in my community.”

There have been over 2,500 Repair Cafes worldwide since 2013 when the late John Wackman started Repair Cafe Hudson Valley in New Paltz. The movement seeks to break the cycle of consumption and disposal and return to the practice of repair. Repair Cafes match volunteer fixers with those who wish to purchase fewer manufactured goods, thereby cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

One of the moms of Girl Scout Junior Group 2862, Anna Mayor, hopes to see lots of kids at all the events, but particularly the village's clean-up on Valley and Cortlandt Streets, and the celebration and information event in Barnhardt Park on April 22 at noon.

“I am so grateful to the work of organizations like SHEAC and [Tarrytown Environmental Advisory Committee], and their emphasis on education,” Mayor said. “Our children are key to the work we do to protect the environment.”

She said it is so important to educate the youth on what can be done at home and in schools every day, things like composting and recycling, so that they can encourage their parents and other adults.

“I hope our Girl Scout troop can be an example on how to make our villages, and world, a better place,” Mayor said.

The public is welcome to participate in monthly SHEAC meetings that are held on the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. at Sleepy Hollow Village Hall, 28 Beekman Ave.

For more information, visit visit this website.