Ruby Szekeres Photos.
At the center of the Guilford Green, Theo Stolar, Madeline Fawcett, Caleb Spear, Vivian Jaisocrak and Mae Bartek were hard at work.
The five, dressed in matching aprons, showed off three bins, each with a specific use. Cans and bottles went in the first one, at the far left. The second, on the right, was reserved for food scraps. In the middle, the third became a catch-all for everything else.
Those students are members of The Green Team, a group of fifth and sixth graders from Baldwin Middle School who are so passionate about the environment that they gather for beach- and litter clean ups, and recently created a waste reduction program at their school. Saturday, they brought their knowledge to the Guilford Green for a town-wide celebration of Earth Day, which takes place each year on April 22.
From family yoga and group Tai Chi to crafts, games and vendor booths, the event brought out over 100 town residents together to celebrate the day, with the hope that many would recommit themselves to Mother Earth. This year, the day takes place in a political climate that is increasingly anti-science and anti-environment, and amidst increasing extreme weather events due to climate change and the collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC).
First observed 56 years ago on April 22, 1970, Earth Day grew out of calls across the country—and the globe—to grow legislative action and public awareness around environmental sustainability and care for the only planet humans have. In part, those efforts were so successful because of the time period in which they were happening: environmentalist Rachel Carson had published her book Silent Spring, exposing the harmful risks of pesticides to human and animal life, eight years prior. Then in January 1969, 3 million gallons of oil spilled off the West Coast of Santa Barbara, California, polluting the waters and decimating the vibrant marine ecosystem that existed there.
“Back then people took to the streets for a different reason,” said Doug Clark, chairman of the Guilford Conservation Commission (GCC) and an organizer of Saturday’s event. A few years ago, Clark brought his idea of an Earth Day Celebration to the GCC, only to learn that Guilford had a history of celebrating this event. He worked alongside State Sen. Christine Cohen and State Reps. Moira Rader and John-Michael Parker to grow the event, and press for legislative change in Hartford in the process.
As he spoke, the earth did not deny its importance, as the sky stayed a muted gray, holding back the beating sun and heavy rain that had sporadically filled the previous weeks. “They got us the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. All [are] equally serious to what we face today.”
Across the Guilford Green, his words sprang to life in a variety of forms, from The Green Team’s pitch for sustainability in schools and workplaces to a station with sewing machines and volunteers eager to give worn-out or damaged clothes a second, third, or even fourth life. At their station, members of the Green Team spoke about their efforts to create a cleaner region, from beach clean-ups to partnering with the Southington-based composting company Blue Earth to collect and recycle food waste in their middle school.
At the group’s last beach clean up in New Haven, members collected over 73 tons of trash in under one hour, said member Vivian Jaisocrak. “And there was still a lot left,” she added.
Nearby, volunteers had set up a “Repair Café,” right in the middle of the celebration. For free, attendees could get clothing or electronics fixed by those “staffing” the cafe, including Guilford residents like Marcia Cooney. A documentary filmmaker by trade, Cooney explained that the idea of the cafe just made sense to her: she has always made time to mend her own children’s clothing, and was happy to do it for others too.
With her grandmother’s sewing machine, she hemmed pants while others besides her replaced coat zippers and patched various items. It was her first time volunteering, she said, and she enjoyed being able to use her talents for the Guilford community.
Repair Café, which began in Amsterdam in 2009, is a non-profit organization with chapters all over the world. Fixing broken items isn’t all the group does: the organization mends the communities it comes to, working with people from all walks of life. If they watched volunteers like Cooney and Sara Normand work, people could see that firsthand: with each stitch that went into a mend, sewers added a new memory to a garment—making it more than the piece of clothing it started out as.
Normand, a member of the Sustainable Guilford Task Force, was equally excited to help, as she has been doing with Repair Café for years. “It’s my turn to give back,” she said, as she prepared her sewing machine for the next thing.
Normand’s favorite part is “being able to see the neighbors you didn’t know you had,” she added. To her, it was the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
That was the mindset Blaize Levitan had when he explored the different vendors and booths with his little boy in his arms. There with his family, Levitan had brought along his father’s watch, which he hoped could be repaired (his young son may have been more interested in the crocheted animals that lined some of the booths).
As the chief operating officer of the Branford Public Schools (BPS), Levitan aims to practice that dedication to the Earth all year round: the district is in the midst of a partnership with Connecticut Green Bank to install solar panels on school rooftops, with installation complete at two of the town’s elementary schools.
BPS is also working to transition to electric buses, which are both more energy efficient and less harmful for the environment and the young passengers who ride them. BPS is also one of the state’s “Farm-to-School” districts, which means that it works closely with local farmers to bring students healthy, locally-grown food.
Stephanie Eckland and her four-year-old daughter Cecilia also were enjoying the time to just be together. As they sat on the statue in the middle of the green and ate their gelato from one of the food trucks, they listened to Clark speak, soaking in the scene around them.
Clark finished his speech. “We’re all in this together,” he said, bringing a feeling of unity to the space.