Watsonville Earth Day festival to focus on combating climate change - Santa Cruz Sentinel

Watsonville Earth Day festival to focus on combating climate change - Santa Cruz Sentinel

WATSONVILLE — As it has done for the last two decades, Watsonville’s Earth Day and Day of the Child festival will provide activities and information to encourage attendees to take care of the planet and ensure it is healthy for future generations.

This year will have a heavy emphasis on a topic that is on the forefront of a lot of people’s minds: climate change, or more specifically, how to take action to protect the Earth.

Amy Cebada, Watsonville’s communications and environmental outreach coordinator, said there was a more selective process in choosing vendors this year.

“We asked participants to directly address the climate issue and bring solutions,” she said. “All of the organizations that are coming will be bringing resources that offer solutions to climate change problems.”

For example, Cebada said that if a bicycle organization applied for a booth to provide information on alternative modes of transportation to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, they would need to provide solutions on safety tips, activities to reinforce those solutions or maybe even giving out free bike reflectors.

Unlike past years, all materials will be free this year, with the exception of food sold by three pre-approved vendors: Tacos Autenticos, Antijitos Mexicanos el Huarache and Delicious Fresh.

“Everything else will be free, and it’s just gonna be an opportunity for people to come and learn and participate in fun, educational activities,” said Cebada.

More than 30 organizations will be present this year providing resources and activities. The Bird School Project will be talking about declining bird populations and the factors that contribute to them, Pajaro Valley Climate Action will have two electric vehicles on display, the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History will discuss the ecological impacts of plastic pollution on watersheds and play a “sink or float” guessing game with plastic items, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary will talk about ocean acidification and demonstrate color-changing samples and the MILPA Collective will talk about the intersectionality of social justice and environmental justice.

“(MILPA will) be offering the opportunity to sign up for youth programs and talk about the importance of advocating for themselves, the environment and the community through learning civic engagement,” said Cebada.

Cebada said the goal is to motivate attendees to take further action against climate change.

“We want to inspire people to take personal action and connect them to resources to slow, reverse or become more resilient to climate change,” she said.

Cebada hopes they will come away with a better understanding of climate change, how it affects them on a local level and how to respond to it.

“We acknowledge that climate change is real, and it’s here right on our doorstep and affecting everyone in our community, so we want to make sure that the people are ready to combat it, to be resilient to it and we are connecting them to resources within our community to face it and be the most equipped that they can be for it,” she said.

Earth Day and Day of the Child will take place noon to 4 p.m. April 23 at the Watsonville Plaza, 358 Main St. The event is free and open to all. For information, visit Cityofwatsonville.org/1779/Earth-Day-Day-of-the-Child.