Earth Fest 2002 continues

This year’s Earth Fest 2002, emphasizing “Building a Sustainable Community,” events started last week and continue through Saturday.

The week full of activities began with the City of Williams and Williams-Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce Clean & Beautiful Committee sponsored Cleanup Day.

“We had over 150 volunteers collecting litter,” said Phyllis Johnson, chair of the Williams Earth Week Committee. “We collected over 400 bags of litter. From those who participated in the data collection information, we found our top three litter categories were smoking waste, fast food litter and beverage litter.”

Earth Fest 2002 is sponsoring a series of informational seminars this week. The Wednesday and Thursday seminars held at 6:30 p.m. in the Bill Williams Senior Center, 850 W. Grant Ave., include:

• Wednesday — Weather Trends Effects on Home Heating and Cooling presented by George Howard.

• Thursday — Green Building, a Willow Bend Environmental Center panel, lead by Glo Edwards.

Other Earth Fest 2002 events include:

• Through Friday — The Forest Cleanup Challenge, sponsored by the Forest Service.

The challenge calls for groups and clubs to compete with each other to see who can gather the most trash from the forest during Williams Earth Week. The Forest Service supplies the bags and gloves. Once the trash is picked up, it should be left along side of the road and the Williams Ranger District should be called with the location and number of bags for pick up. Garbage bags can be obtained at the Williams Ranger District office during the week.

• Saturday — Tour of Environmental homes.

“We have an Earth Ship, passive/solar, a Strawbale, one that is made from Rastra, which is a recycled material, water collecting systems and we have a home a that is powered by solar and wind,” said Johnson. “Tickets are available at the seminars and at the (City of Williams/Forest Service) visitors center.”

Homes on Spring Valley Road, Garland Prairie Road and in Juniper Estates are already signed up for the tour. The home tours will occur from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday. A map of the homes is available at the visitors center. Tickets sales started Monday and cost $2.50 for students and $5 for adults.

Last weekend’s events also included a free volunteer’s barbecue, sponsored and cooked by the Williams Rotary Club, Clean & Beautiful and the city, and the National Youth Service Science Fair, with students from area schools and home schoolers participating.

“Williams Clean & Beautiful Committee awarded cash prizes to the poster contest winners — Keeley Brothers, Krishna Patel, Nikita Patel and Logan Wygal,” said Johnson.

Williams Clean & Beautiful Committee also awarded cash prizes to the science project winners. These included:

Grade School age — Logan Wygal, Solar Cooking and Sam Richman, Acid Rain.

Middle School age — Ashley Mulvihill, Tomato Seed Germination; Alie Konkel and Lauren Weber, Soils; and Daniel Mayfield, Effect of Gray Water.

High School Age — Anica Wong, Reclaimed Water; Greta Eikenberry and Tara O’Leary, Cacti; and Curtis Bardsley, Amy Christman and Vishal Patel, Cooking with Solar Energy.

High School Reports — Organic Cotton by Rachel Fitzgerald and Danielle Maddux; Why Hydrogen? by Lorin Pope; and Have You Ever Considered? By Nichole Jordan and Deidre Rawlinson.

In addition to students at the fair, Williams Alliance Against Drugs, area Girl Scouts, Williams Head Start, the Forest Service, WHS Hiking Vikings, Williams Builder’s Club/K-Kids, the Alternative Center and Willow Bend Environmental Center and Southwest Forestry, both from Flagstaff, also had booths.

Woodsey Owl made an appearance to encourage attendees to ‘Lend A Hand, Care for the Land’ along with Smokey Bear who stressed the importance of ‘Preventing Forest Fires.’ Colleen Whitehurst, Eddie Bressler, Craig Johnson, Becky Mills and David Mills were the science fair judges.

For more information on this week’s events, contact Jan Neal, customer service representative and information receptionist for the Kaibab National Forest, Williams Ranger District, at 635-5600, or Johnson, at 635-2569.