A visit to an Earth Day event in Dallas, Texas inspired Emily and Paco Ollervides to create one for the residents of Marion and Morrow counties.
Coming on Saturday, April 30, the owners of the ECO Centerlocated at 1757 County Road 59 in Morrow County just east of Caledonia, will mark the seventh year of the local Earth Day community celebration.
“We took what we experienced in Dallas, but on a much smaller scale, and offered it to our communities here to empower like-minded people who sold local products and local nonprofits who were looking for support an opportunity to talk about their mission,” said Emily Ollervides. “The intention was to give us and everyone who partnered with us the opportunity to share products and ideas eco-friendly. We also really wanted to give families a chance to get out and enjoy our property while interacting with other members of the community to celebrate The Earth.”
Doors to the property will open at noon on April 30 and the event will continue until 4 p.m. Participating businesses and organizations will have booths and displays set up. Local vendors will have a wide variety of products available for purchase including local honey, pure homemade vanilla extract, maple syrup, farm fresh produce, botanicals, eco products, plastic-free living, filtered water and reused products.
Activities for children include barrel train rides, mini-ziplines, farm animals, ninja warrior course, recycled playground, interpretive woodland trail, meadow, and slides.
Two workshops for children will be offered. Tyler Butler, former executive director of the Terradise Nature Center near Caledonia, will present a workshop entitled “Bioaccumulation in Owls” from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. James Anderson, naturalist for the Marion County Park Districtwill present the workshop entitled “A Look Inside Vernal Pools” from 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
“Tyler and James have been with me from the very beginning,” Ollervides said. “James started collaborating with us before he was even with the park district. I really give these guys the autonomy to choose what they’re passionate about, what they want to talk about in this year. They’re amazing. have had the opportunity to attend one of their shows can expect to hear a lot of interesting information aimed at the audience before them, and can relate to everyone from two- and three-year-olds to adults, and everyone seems to enjoy their programming.
ECO Center will host a raffle featuring eight hand-painted rain barrels by local artists from the Marion area. Tickets for the raffle can be purchased on the ECO Center website or on the day of the event, Ollervides said.
“I can’t say enough how grateful I am to the local artists and schools who have supported the rain barrel project over the years,” Ollervides said. “For the past three years, Ben Kern (since The Guild in downtown Marion) led the search and securing of artists for the project, which was a real blessing to me. They produce very beautiful hand-painted rain barrels.”
Rain Barrel artists for 2022 include Ben Kern, Annette Montis, Emma Montis, Katie McCurry, Jaime Courtney and David Courtney.
Students at River Valley Middle School also painted rain barrels. They are Kadynce Amnathphonthip, Valerie Riegel, Carly Tolle, Hayden Kittles, Mattix Lust, Selah Parkman and Hailee Osborne.
“We’ve always been so lucky to have the support of the community,” Ollervides said. “It’s a free event, which, especially seven years ago, would have been impossible for us to offer. Community sponsors have always been there to help us offer it as a free event.”
For more information on the ECO Center’s Earth Day event, visit the website www.ecocenterohio.com or follow ECO Center LLC on Facebook.
ECO Center is located at 1757 County Road 59 in Morrow County, East Caledonia. The phone number is 914-400-8085. The email address is [email protected]
Email: [email protected] | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter
