Earth Day Festival April 18, 2010

Join us April 18, 2010 as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day with an all-day festival, featuring a series of Earth Day 2010daytime events and activities and a documentary film showing and reception in the evening. Kick off the day with a bird walk around the gardens; participate in the Earth Day Networks Global Day of Service through a volunteer planting project in our 40th Anniversary Grove; enjoy interactive childrens activities, and visit our educational exhibit fair.Schedule of Events:8:00am-12:00pm:Earth Day Network Day of Service Volunteer Planting Project:Join Brooksides Horticultural staff and help us plant the understory of our 40th Anniversary Grove. For detailed information about volunteering on Earth Day, please contact the volunteer desk by phone at 301-962-1429 or by email.10:00am:Morning Bird Walk with Brookside Nature Center Naturalist. No registration required; meet at the Brookside Gardens Conservatory.10:00am-12:00pm: Rain Barrel WorkshopGather water from your rooftops, help control stormwater impacts from your yard, and store water to use in your landscape. Learn about watershed health in the County, and how you can help, starting at your own home. Rain barrel with fittings and easy instructions provided. Limited to one rain barrel per household. Remember to bring a vehicle large enough to carry a 55-gallon barrel home! Pre-registration required.12:00-1:00pm:Kids Storytime: Listen to a Brookside Gardens volunteer read Jack in the Beanstalk, and plant a bean seed for your vegetable garden at home. No registration required; meet in the Anderson Island Pavilion.12:00-4:00pm:Educational Exhibit Fair - Free tree seedling giveaway for the first 500 visitors.Meet representatives from local and regional green businesses and environmental educational organizations to learn more about what people are doing in your community to promote environmental stewardship.Childrens ActivitiesVisit our Children's Garden to enjoy down-to-earth fun. This garden highlights natural beauty and natural fun. See whats inside a gnome hut, follow stepping stones to a tea party, build and stack natural wooden blocks, pretend you are a farmer, climb into a tree house, observe life around a water garden, and discover important pollinating insects. And, just for Earth Day, bring your camera to take your picture with the Brookside Gardens Frog, create an Earth Wish Flower, and learn about how our worm-composting bin gives us beautiful compost for our garden. All activities to be held in the Children's Garden near the Visitors Center.1:00-2:30pm:Children's Workshop: Grow It Eat It - Salad BoxHere's a fun project for you and your children to do together! Learn how to improve your health and your child's health by growing your own fresh organic salad! Let the Master Gardeners from the University of Maryland show you how to construct and plant your own wooden Salad Box planter. For ages 8-12; pre-registration required.2:00-3:00pm:Kids Storytime: Listen to a Brookside Gardens volunteer read Jack in the Beanstalk, and plant a bean seed for your vegetable garden at home. No registration required; meet in the Anderson Island Pavilion.6:00-9:00pm:The Future of Food - Film and ReceptionJoin Brookside Gardens for a showing of The Future of Food, a documentary film that has been a key tool in the American and international anti-GMO (genetically modified organism) grassroots activist movements and played widely in the environmental and activist circuits since its release in 2004. The film is widely acknowledged for its role in educating voters and the subsequent success of passing Measure H in Mendocino County, California, one of the first local initiatives in the country to ban the planting of GMO crops. For the next several years, Brookside Gardens is pleased to offer food-related programs and events to educate, inspire, and inform residents of Montgomery County and beyond about issues related to sustainable-food production.