With Spring finally starting to emerge, we have lots to celebrate now that the cold, wet winter weather has passed. Like Earth Day on April 22nd. Earth day was created to help bring awareness and support for environmental protection around the world. Below, you will find a few fun and unique ways to show our planet that you care.
Local Events
Tulip Festival Street Fair
The 38th annual Tulip Festival Street Fair invites you to historic Downtown Mount Vernon April 21-23, 2023 for a long weekend of art and festivities.
HOURS:
Friday, April 21, 10am-6pm
Saturday, April 22, 10am-6pm
Sunday, April 23, 10am-5pm
Tulip Festival Street Fair is thrilled to welcome 140+ artisan vendors, entertainers, food trucks, and children’s activities for this year’s event. You’ll find myriad handmade items: wearable art, jewelry, handcrafted furniture, art and sculpture for your home and garden – many of one-of-a-kind treasures! Food Trucks with delicious fare are located throughout the Fair.
Looking for a family-friendly afternoon or for an outing with friends? There’s something for everyone at the Tulip Festival Street Fair!
Spring Market at Dairyland – April 21st to April 23rd from 10am-4pm
12125 Treosti Road, Snohomish
This is a free event hosted by Snohomish’s Dairyland Barn. Enjoy treats and drinks from local vendors, plants and flowers, vintage finds from local artisans and much more!
Bala Yoga Kirkland – April 22nd at 4:30pm
9750 NE 119th way Kirkland
Want to learn more about the study and practice of yoga and meet current students and instructors? Join us for the conclusion of our 200-hour training for a free community class! WFP member and blog manager Cheyanne Herick is among the celebrating graduates.
How you can make a difference
Reduce – During the springtime people often take that time to clean out unnecessary clutter around their home. Look around your home and go room by room to see what can be either donated, recycled, or used in a different space. Involve your kids in this process too by helping them sort through their toys and talk them through deciding what not to keep and what they would like to do with that toy.
We can also think of “reduce” in terms of utilities usage and our carbon footprint. Below are a few easy and simple ways to reduce our physical impact on our planet.
Reuse – With a little thought and creativity, simple household items that are either destined for the trash or recycling bin can have a whole other life and purpose to them!
Toilet paper tubes: Save all of your discarded toilet paper and paper towel tubes to create all sorts of fun games and toys. They can be cut in half to make a marble ramp, pouch lids and a toothpick can turn them into racecars, and much more!
Egg cartons: When cut up and painted, egg carton cups can serve a variety of different functions. Building blocks, a caterpillar, a boat, or a flower. All you need is some glue, markers, and help from an adult with the scissors and you’ve got a new toy!
Cardboard boxes: Don’t throw away those amazon boxes! A simple cardboard box has so many potential uses for crafts and activities for your kiddos. One fun example is to build a box city out of all the leftover boxes. Popsicle sticks can be ramps and street signs, stickers, markers, and paint can be used to decorate your structures to be any style and function you want. The only limit is your own imagination.
Recycle – Sorting recyclable items correctly is very important for helping waste management do their job correctly and ensuring that things go to the right place. If you are ever doubting if a certain item is going into the correct bin, go to ecology.wa.gov/recycleright for helpful tips and guides on how to recycle responsibly.
Composting – Unfortunately not every King County resident has access to a yard waste bin and removal services. If you do not have one at your home or community and would like to be able to compost any food waste, here are a few ways to do so.
Mill – New company Mill has set out to design a sleek and efficient kitchen composting bin that eliminates the amount of food waste in landfills, kitchen garbage odor, and gets clean compost back to farms and chickens who need it. For people who have already reserved their spot to receive a Mill kitchen bin will be seeing them ship out this spring, and spots are already filling up fast for this Summer.
Worm bin – If a less techy approach to composting is more your speed, a backyard worm bin is another great way to eliminate waste. How to make a worm bin for your home compost use here.
We here at WFP wish everyone a happy and healthy spring season. Now get on out there and make sone fun family memories!