#PkEarthDay Planning is Underway
A group of 15 local residents met Thursday night to discuss the second annual Poughkeepsie Earth Day event coming the weekend of April 22. Topics discussed included city logistics, food, music, entertainment and more.
“To me, Earth Day is about diversity in so many ways, whether that be biodiversity, the diversity of our amazing city, or anything like that,” said organizer Laurie Sandow.
Although she only moved to Poughkeepsie two years ago, Sandow is the brains behind this operation. Last year’s Earth Day event was her first major community outreach effort and she hopes to expand upon last year’s success.
Other attendees were also active members of the Poughkeepsie community, representing all types of local outreach and educational programs including Cornell Cooperative, Hudson River Housing, Changepoint Church and Vassar College.
So far, the plan is to have a two-day event on the weekend of Earth Day. Friday evening will involve educational tables and booths, food vendors and family activities. Saturday will start with a clean-up effort, one in each ward of Poughkeepsie, followed by a potential March for Science in solidarity with the march happening in Washington D.C.
“The purpose of the march is to come together in support of research-based, data-driven, fact-based, if you will, policy and decision making…I would love to take their message, streamline it to the Hudson Valley, and get as many people of all ages involved as possible,” said David Esteban, Professor of Biology at Vassar College.
One of the attendees believed they should use food as a way to drive home the sustainability theme of Earth Day. “Healthy food is going to help this planet as much as anything else we’re doing, so we should frame it as a central tenant of this event,” said James Kopp, local resident who works with RUPCO housing to make people’s homes more environmentally friendly.
The city of Poughkeepsie technically does not allow outdoor food sales; however, it was mentioned that the city allowed outdoor food vendors at their own First Friday event, so the group decided to seek a waiver in light of this.
Other concerns included funding, timelines, and drawing a crowd. This group is not a nonprofit organization, so finding sponsors and partners is integral to the event’s success. Outreach ideas included schools, religious organizations, the arts community, and other nonprofits as well. It was also evident that there are only two months left before Earth Day, so a solid media strategy was also discussed and a preliminary plan was developed.
An important distinction between this year and last year’s event was also made during this meeting. This year, the group has decided to call the event “Poughkeepsie Community Earth Day” instead of “Pk Earth Day” in order to give a more inclusive and far reaching element to the event.
“The city is totally on board with all this. Let’s give the city a better name than it’s been given in the past,” said councilwoman Ann Perry.
Sandow and the rest of the participants seemed generally optimistic about the event and excited to continue work on it. “There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm that has built up much quicker and with more steam than it did last year, so that’s great,” Lorie said at the conclusion of the meeting “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
