(828newsNOW) — Our little corner of the planet is gearing up for Earth Day on April 22, with weekend events including a family festival, neighborhood cleanup and run through a riverside park in Asheville, and an eco-friendly street festival in downtown Hendersonville.
An Earth Day Fair for Families will be from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 20, at Buncombe County Sports Park.
Sponsored the county, the free event will include environmental education workshops, free “eco crafting,” activities to build bird houses and feeders, an activity teaching about the greenhouse effect, and more.
It’s being held in conjunction with a parks cleanup and the landscaping of a new polinator garden in partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
To register for the parks cleanup, and to learn about a related clean-up at Lake Julian Park, CLICK HERE.
The second annual Earth Day 5K is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, from a start/finish line at The Outpost, 220 Amboy Road, and a route through nearby Carrier Park.
The event is hosted by the nonprofit Green Built Alliance, to raise funds and awareness for the campaign to reduce the community’s carbon footprint. It supports programs that promote sustainability, environmental justice and support the community, the group says in a release.
Organizers encourage people to: “Leave a Positive Footprint!”
The second annual Hendo Earth Fest will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 20, on Main Street between 4th and 6th avenues and adjacent streets.
There will be entertainment and educational programs to “raise awareness of the need to protect our planet for future generations,” organizers wrote in a release.
Exhibitors include The Aquarium and Shark Lab by Team ECCO, Sundance Solar, Gribley Permaculture and more. Hendersonville City Council representatives are scheduled to speak from the main stage at 11:50 a.m.
Since visitors are encouraged to ride bicycles to the event, there will be free bike-check services from Blue Ridge Bicycle Club.
A Haywood Road Clean-Up starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 20, with a meeting at New Belgium Brewing, 21 Craven Street, Asheville.
The event is hosted by Asheville GreenWorks, the West Asheville Business Association, Wrong Way Campground and OnHaywood, and will help clean up the Haywood Road corridor of West Asheville.
There will be breakfast and rewards afterwards for volunteers.
Participants are asked to RSVP HERE.
For more weekend events, including a pair of 5K running events in the area, see the 828newsNOW section on EVENTS.