Lawrence University Earth Day Celebration Features Live Music, Information Fair

APPLETON, WIS. -- Lawrence University salutes Mother Nature Saturday, April 21 with its third annual Earth Day Festival, featuring live music, children's activities and an environmental-related information fair.

The festival runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Lawrence Main Hall Green. In the event of inclement weather, all activities will be moved inside the Lawrence Memorial Union. All Earth Day Festival events and activities are free and open to the public.

Members of Greenfire, Lawrence's student environmental awareness organization, in conjunction with the Fox Valley Sierra Club, will conduct a trash collection and tree planting along the banks of the Fox River near the Lawrence campus from 9-11 a.m. to open the day's activities. Interested volunteers are encouraged to participate.

Area grade school students will showcase their personally decorated bikes, wagons, scooters, big wheels and any other non-motorized mode of transportation in the "Kid's Earth Day Parade" beginning at 11:45 a.m. The theme of the parade is "Wisconsin Plants and Animals."

A variety of children's activities, including tie-dying, rock painting and recycled art, will be conducted throughout the afternoon and an "information fair," featuring nearly a dozen tables offering information on environmental issues ranging from low-impact camping to the Outagamie County Recycling Program also will be held.

Live music will be performed throughout the afternoon. The Sambistas, Lawrence's popular samba-style student percussion group, will perform during the children's float parade. Fox Valley acoustical folk musicians Doug Wheeler and Steve Hazell will perform from 2-3:30 p.m. and the bluegrass band Cork and Bottle String Band will play from 3:30 -5 p.m.