Marina Earth Day Held April 11 at Locke-Paddon Park
By Natalie Zayas Delgado & Steve Zmak
April 2015
Assembly member Mark Stone and Mayor Bruce Delgado of Marina enjoying the festivities at Earth Day on April 11. (Photo: Steve Zmak).
This annual event, the largest Earth Day event in Monterey County, always draws a great crowd of families wanting to learn more about conservation, and an outpouring of community service.
This event is unique in that volunteers sign up for service projects to clean and beautify the park. For their service they receive a free lunch—an amazing vegetarian stir-fry provided and cooked by the Marina Rotary. The Earth Day Committee provided fresh, locally grown, organic fruits, such as mandarin oranges and strawberries. Everyone's Harvest Farmer's Markets works with local farmers and the sponsorships for the event help pay for the fruit.
Volunteers work to clean up vegetation in Marina. (Photo: Steve Zmak).
There were eight service projects that included invasive weed removal, watering the oak woodland, repairing wind fences around the new oaks, adding new native plants, colorfully painting garbage cans and park benches, litter removal, placing mulch, and gardening at the Dunes Project.
Ventana Chapter members give away reusable canvas bags at Earth Day in Marina (Photo: Steve Zmak).
More than 200 volunteers registered in advance, with an additional 50+ volunteers showing up that morning. Live bands jam throughout the work party surrounded by 30 booths from educational, conservation and civic groups. Ventana Chapter Executive Committee members Rita Dalessio and Mary Gale staffed the Sierra Club table that included games and coloring for the kids, hiking guides for the adults, and they handed out 150 reusable bags with the Sierra Club logo. Event organizers estimate that more than 300 reusable bags were handed out at this event by various groups. This is important as Marina's Bag Ordinance went into effect on March 19th.
The Chuck Haugen Conservation Fund provided reusable dishes and wash stations so the event was zero waste. The Monterey Regional Waste Management District provided trash, recycle and compost containers.
Natalie Zayas-Delgado, Marina Earth Day coordinator with friendly snake Roscoe and friend. (Photo: Steve Zmak).
Organizers of this event were: Citizens for Sustainable Marina, Return of the Natives, Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District, Central Coast Cert., Marina Rotary, and Monterey Regional Waste Management District.
Sponsors of the event were: Sierra Club Ventana Chapter, The City of Marina, Green Waste Recovery, Marina Grange, Chuck Haugen Conservation Fund, Friends of the Marina Library, Marina Rotary, Aplus Water, Coffee Mia, Monterey Regional Waste Management District, Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District, Return of the Natives, Everyone’s Harvest Farmer’s Markets, Calvary Baptist Church, T. A. Ledesma Builders, and Central Coast Cert.
