The photo that inspired Earth Day: “Earthrise,” snapped by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders from lunar orbit on December 24, 1968
“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
Earth Day began on the Moon. Forty-three years ago, U.S. Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders took the iconic “Earthrise” photograph from the moon’s orbit. That image starkly revealed the earth as it truly is: a delicate, beautiful, lonely outpost suspended in the void of space. That perspective was astonishing and eye-opening. It bolstered and helped the budding environmental movement in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere to gain momentum. Less than two years later, on April 22, 1970, the first annual Earth Day was held in the U.S. to demonstrate support for environmental protection. By 1990, Earth Day events were held in 141 countries. Today, events are coordinated globally by the umbrella organization EarthDay.org and include more than a billion people in 193 countries.
In the Wenatchee Valley this year, there was no shortage of Earth Day events including the Leavenworth Community Earth Day Fair, the Wenatchee River “Trashion Show,” and the Sustainable NCW Earth Day at the Pybus Market in Wenatchee. CHS students were well represented at all three events. In addition, to help mark Earth Day, CHS students took part in Cascade Community Cleanup Day.
Cascade Cleanup Day consisted of the whole of the CHS student body, on the morning of April 26th, spreading out, in Flex Period groups, across Leavenworth to pick up trash that accumulated in town over the winter. The project was led by members of the CHS Leadership course, a member of which is sophomore Blue Knutson. Knutson said that the project’s goals were twofold: “to simply help clean up and beautify town while building community by engaging all of the students in a common project.”
CHS Students Cleaning up Trash along the Icicle River
The Leavenworth Community Earth Day celebration and fair was held on Saturday, April 23 at Enchantment Park. The event was hosted by Waste Loop, a local organization that seeks to “inspire and transform local waste streams into sustainable resources in the greater Leavenworth area.” The celebration included environmental education booths, food, music, kid’s activities, yoga and fitness classes and nature and historical walking tours. Link Transit provided free shuttles on an electric bus from the DOT lot on Highway 2. CHS senior and CHS Sustainability Club president Chase Runions was at the fair and said it gave him “hope that the event helped to draw attention to climate change.” Runions continued with a friendly reminder “that really, every day is Earth Day. Get out there, ride a bike, go for a hike and enjoy where we live.” He concluded by urging every CHS student to “get committed and join our [CHS] Sustainability Club.”
The Wenatchee River Institute (WRI), in partnership with Waste Loop, Sustainable NCW (formerly Sustainable Wenatchee), and the Sustainability Club at Wenatchee Valley College, hosted, on WRI’s lawn, a “Trashion Show” on Friday, April 22. Twenty teams showed off and modeled their trashion fashion runway style. Outfits were made from recycled and/or repurposed materials that had to be made from at least 75% recyclable or reused materials. The concept was to create true, if not somewhat outrageous, fashion from trash. Freshman Paige Runions, a member of a team that was organized through a CHS 3D Art class said that the goal of her team, which also included freshmen Savanna Rowles and Harper Robbins, “was to have fun working together to raise awareness of the values of recycling and re-use.”
CHS freshmen Harper Robbins, Savanna Rowles, and Paige Runions on stage at the WRI ”Trashion Show”
Sustainable NCW, Chelan County PUD, Link Transit, The Nature Conservancy and Waste Management co-hosted an Earth Day fair at Pybus Market on Saturday, April 23rd. That fair featured 25 booths of local organizations and small businesses. Similar to the Leavenworth Community Earth Day celebration, the event featured family-friendly activities including the opportunity to get a good look at one of Link Transit’s electric buses, which activity was sponsored by Plug In NCW, a non-profit subsidiary of the North Central Washington Economic Development District. Other offerings at the Pybus on Saturday included information on bicycling in the Wenatchee Valley, how to get involved with gleaning fresh produce for local food banks, information on sustainable animal agriculture and regenerative farming, and “firewise” information on forest health and fire adaptive communities. In addition, the Eastmont Key Club accepted both “gently used and worn-out shoes” for donating and recycling.
Earth Day, and community enthusiasm for it, is clearly flourishing in the Wenatchee Valley.
Of note: the matriarch of environmental conservation in Leavenworth, the Upper Valley and beyond, Harriet Stimpson Bullitt, died on Saturday, April 23, the day after her fifty-second Earth Day at the age of 97. Bullitt, who maintained a life-long commitment to public lands, environmental outreach, and education, poured over $200 million into environmental issues, including protection of the PNW’s old-growth forests and rivers. In the Upper Valley, in addition to her well-known founding of Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort and the Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, she purchased the Barn Beach Reserve for the Wenatchee River Institute and helped launch the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust. Recognizing and remembering Bullitt and her remarkable life and generosity is appropriate this Earth Day season.
Harriett Bullitt framed by the Sleeping Lady
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