Every Day is Earth Day
This month marks the
30th anniversary of
Earth Day, a campaign originally launched to build environmental
awareness throughout the United States. Today, the idea behind this
crusade has spread and become not only international in its scope, but
has also evolved into a daily goal of heightened environmental
consciousness.
In the early 1960s, Senator Gaylord Nelson made it his
goal to persuade President Kennedy to give national visibility to
environmental issues that were fast becoming drastic in their nature. By
1970, Senator Nelson had achieved his goal and announced that the first
annual environmental teach-in was to take place. Since its inception,
Earth Day has taken on a life of its own and has grown to represent much
more than simply a day to protect the environment. As Senator Nelson
expressed, "it was truly an astonishing grassroots explosion. The people
cared and Earth Day became the first opportunity they ever had to join in
a nationwide demonstration to send a big message to the politicians-a
message to tell them to wake up and do something. It was a gamble, but it
worked."
On a local level, Green Reef, the community's only
grassroots conservation organization, first celebrated Earth Day with the
Reef Festival in 1997. Since then, the all-day festival has grown into an
event dedicated to encouraging community environmental awareness and
participation through educational displays, glass-bottom boat trips to
the reef, marine animal touch tanks and more. In addition, the Festival
has also allowed Green Reef and other organizations to showcase projects,
as well as bring attention to environmental issues of concern. Green Reef
is again preparing for the Reef Festival, which will take place this year
on May 22
Although the Reef Festival has consistently been a
successful all-day event, Green Reef has always believed that every day
should be Earth Day. Likewise, we believe that the primary way of
achieving this goal is through education. For example, taking local
youths out to the reef or presenting slide shows to those visiting from
abroad. Last week, Green Reef took a group of children, parents and
teachers from neighboring Caye Caulker to the reef and taught them about
general reef
Since Green Reef is a non-profit organization, we are
often dependent upon donations and volunteer support from the community.
Fortunately, many San Pedro citizens have been more than willing to
support Green Reef. In particular, Green Reef would like to acknowledge
and thank Billy Leslie of the San Pedro Tour Guide Association and Norman
Eiley for consistently going above and beyond to assist us in achieving
our objectives.
Green Reef is always looking for volunteers! If you
are interested in helping out with this year's Reef Festival, please call
2940.
If you have a topic you would like featured in Reef Brief, or would just like to help us, please call 2833, or
E-mail: - [email protected]. |
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