An Event You Don't Want to Miss

We have an incredible Natick Earth Day Festival coming up April 27 right here at the Natick Common, the day after the Framingham Earth Day Festival.    We've woven together an exquisite fabric of local performing groups, the schools, downtown merchants, Town Boards and Committees, and grassroots environmental organizations.  Here's the fundamental message: we're really trying to (and succeeding in) healing the earth and building community.

• Thanks to the help of generous volunteers and innovative teachers, we have on display throughout the windows of downtown merchants our Kid Art Walk, which this year features the drawings of 2nd graders throughout the Natick Schools.  They were asked to create a drawing that featured their environmental concerns and passions.

• We have the 3-Time State Champion Natick HS Speech Team coming back for a dramatic reading of the Dr. Suess Classic, The Lorax.

• We have the Walnut Hill Singers coming back for a third year in a row.  Broadway: watch out.

• We have the Creature Teacher coming back again this year.  He teaches children and adults about wild creatures right at the Natick Common...their behavior, habitats, place in the web and in our communities.

• We have Joanne Schmalenberger and her Gravoxy Rebounder System which allow kids to do interactive and terrific exercise on these little mini-trampolines (far superior to a "Jump House.")

• We have a wonderful folk singer (and local Pastor), Gina Praino who will sing to us and lead us in song.

• We have the interactive Children's Band, Earth Tunes, which will engage everyone in wonderful musical play and singing.

• We have the Common St. Church Children's Choir

• We have Natick's own multigenerational Chorus, Sound and Spirit, performing for the first time at Natick Earth Day.  They are truly magical.

• We have local organizations that are trying to heal the wounds and victims of our modern - complex way of life: SPARK Kindness (formerly the Natick Anti-Bullying Coalition, will be there with Natick Together for Youth, and the Natick Board of Health, all of whom are working hard to reach out to young people and their families and prevent opiate overdose/addiction, social cruelty, and other destructive behaviors. 

•We have the Natick Trails Committees including Town Forest and Natick Trails Maintenance (which will be giving away free trail maps), and the Open Space Advisory Committee, The Bicycle - Pedestrian Safety Committee, Big Heart Little Feet - Lake Cochituate Watershed Council, igniting volunteerism and environmental initiatives throughout Metrowest.  In fact we will be "kicking off" the Trash-Free Natick Project, making Natick the first Trash-Free Community in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2014.

• We have the Natick Recycling Committee, who by the way, have just completed their Clean Your Attic Day, the day before (4/26), the Natick Department of Public Works, The Natick Land Facilities and Naturual Resources Department - who will be giving away free Tree Seedlings.

• We have the renown Natick High School Earth Club which has formed a coalition with Big Heart Little Feet and co-sponsored more than 30 clean-ups and initiatives throughout the Town.

• We have local Peace organizations like, PAX Christi, and Metrowest Peace Action.

• We have Occupy Natick which is an inspiring organization trying to educate the public about income inequality in the United States...no doubt at the bottom of many of our environmental problems, among them right wing billionaires who literally "buy Congressmen" and fund the fossil fuel industry, climate change deniers, et al.

• Whole Foods has given us 3 crates of bananas which we will be giving away for free.

We have nearly 50 organizations profiling their passions and good work.  Come join us.  --pat