Sustainable Resilient Longmont celebrates Earth Day
Apr. 20—Community members celebrated their love for the natural world at Sustainable Resilient Longmont's 10th annual Earth Day event.
Saturday morning brought snow, but the celebration continued as scheduled at Timberline PK-8 School in Longmont. With a blend of indoor and outdoor activities, the event brought people together to learn more about sustainable practices and renewable living. Sustainable Resilient Longmont is a nonprofit group that works on several goals, including working with the Platte River Power Authority to move to 100% renewable energy by 2030 and trying to make Longmont be a Zero Waste city, according to information on its website.
"Thanks for braving the cold to join us for a fun day," SRL volunteer Stephanie Potter told guests on Saturday. "This is our 10th anniversary ... and we just keep going strong, and we keep growing."
Event coordinator Gina Burrows explained that SRL was founded a decade ago to bring an Earth Day celebration to Longmont. Since then, the nonprofit has expanded to feature other activities and programs, but Earth Day remains its hallmark event.
"It's a really great way to give back to Longmont," Burrows said. "I think it's really cool to bring it to 10 years, and hopefully there will be another 10 years."
This year's celebration had 41 booths representing local nonprofits, businesses and city branches. Several booths were manned by experts sharing tips on environmentally friendly living, including Longmont Food Rescue, the Platte River Power Authority and the Longmont Public Library.
"Earth Day is such a global thing, so having an event right here in Longmont kind of brings it home," Burrows said. "It gives people some direction about what they can actually, meaningfully do right now, right here. We want people to learn and to have some action items that they can walk away with."
A few vendors also had booths for the first time this year, as well. For example, Josephine Sterr, director of the Boulder County Kids Sale, said she wanted to join the event this year because the consignment sale is also focused on sustainability.
"We celebrate Earth Day because we try to re-use as much as humanly possible," Sterr said.
This year's celebration also introduced a new event — a clothing swap. Visitors were encouraged to donate clothes in any condition and pick up new ones free of charge.
SRL secretary Jessica Shaver helped coordinate the clothing swap and explained that its ultimate goal is to reduce textile waste.
"Clothing swaps are a really good way to talk about the value of clothes," Shaver said. "There are more than enough clothes in existence to clothe six generations of humans, and most of them are made out of synthetics."
Premier Members Credit Union also returned as the event's title sponsor. This year, the credit union held a raffle where guests could win Community Supported Agriculture shares to Kilt Farm at 8140 Oxford Road. Such shares give consumers a chance to get local, seasonally grown food from a local farmer.
"SRL has been doing an increasingly good job of reaching out to all aspects of the community and ensuring equity in the event," said Garrett Chappell, sustainability coordinator with PMCU. "I'm always happy to see a bunch of people show up...just to celebrate what can be done locally."
