Earth Day comes to Heifer International campus

Our natural landscape in Arkansas does a lot for us; on one day in April, it’s time to return the favor. The Arkansas Earth Day Foundation will host the 2012 Earth Day Festival on Saturday, April 21, on the campus of Heifer International headquarters in downtown Little Rock from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Visitors can learn fun ways to contribute to our environment’s continued health, and can enjoy music and activities celebrating the Earth we inhabit. The Festival includes booths and hands-on demonstrations showing visitors how to be earth-conscious by recycling and reusing whenever possible. The Elevate Stage returns to the festival, where visitors can learn about all sorts of green topics, from yoga to raw food.

Heifer International will bring animals from the Heifer Ranch in Perryville to illustrate ways that food and income can be cultivated sustainably. Heifer Village offers activities to enlighten visitors of all ages about the problems of hunger and poverty and how they can be overcome in an Earth-friendly way.

Kids’ activities including a rock-climbing wall, tie-dyeing and crafts like making a recycled musical instrument. The Arkansas Sustainability Network will choose the winning entries from its Innovation Alley creative contest for children grades K-12.

This festival allows visitors to drop off items as well as taking some home. Various nonprofits will collect household goods and e-waste including old cell phones and chargers, while Freecycle will collect unwanted items and let visitors bring them home.

An all-natural (but very smelly) event, the Great Cloth Diaper Challenge, will take place at 11 a.m., in which Arkansas parents join with others around the globe to try to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest simultaneous worldwide diaper change.

Music, lectures on ways to green your life and samples of holistic health services will be part of the festivities. Last year’s festival brought out 3,000 visitors.

Visitors can park in the Heifer International parking lot, but they are encouraged to leave the vehicle at home and use alternative transportation, like the bus, walking, biking or carpooling. Patrons are also encouraged to bring their own reusable shopping bags and refillable water bottles.

Arkansas Earth Day is currently seeking applications from booths (art/crafts, business, organization, display, nonprofit, educational, individual); sponsors (individual or corporate); volunteers (organizations or individuals); or performers (speakers, musicians, poets, dancers, etc.). If you are interested in being involved with the event, please fill out an application online at www.ArkansasEarthDay.org