LEWISBURG, W.Va. (WVDN) – The rain stopped, and the skies cleared just in time for the Greenbrier River Watershed Association Earth Day celebration at Lost World Caverns on Saturday, April 22. The afternoon was filled with music, food and education about the watershed. West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Save Our Streams representative Callie Sams hosted a macroinvertebrate table, and Kara Grosso with the West Virginia Conservation Agency was present to talk about conservation issues, as well.
Through a grant from the Mountain Resource Conservation Development, the group also hosted a rain barrel workshop. The grant sponsored a free rain barrel and connector kit to those who signed up.
Later, at 5 p.m., five painted rain barrels were auctioned via Martha Hilton, auctioneer. Students from Rupert Elementary, Rainelle Elementary, Eastern Greenbrier Middle School and Western Greenbrier Middle School were involved in the painting and decorating.
Greenbrier River Watershed Association board member Autumn Crowe will soon visit the schools to talk about rain barrel use for water conservation and pollution control. Three schools kept a rain barrel for their own garden, and a sponsorship plaque was likewise auctioned to be imprinted with the donor’s name.
The entire Earth Day event began at 2 p.m., filled with music, food, free cave tours, a fiddler inside the cave and the group received lots of sponsorships and silent auction items from local businesses. Five students from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine volunteered as part of their National Day of Service, as well.
Additionally, on Sunday, April 23, Greenbrier River Watershed Association President John Walkup, board members Elizabeth Clark, Laura Izzo, Roger Vannoy, Autumn Leah Crowe (with her son, Ridge) and coordinator Louanne Fatora met at the Caldwell boat launch to continue the annual tradition of “Make It Shine.”
They partnered up with many other community members and hauled up lots of tires, metal, cans, bottles and plastic for disposal.
If anyone at any time wants to organize a trash pickup event along the river, call the Greenbrier River Watershed Association at 304-647-4792, and they will help get supplies and arrange a pickup.
The group thanks everyone for their contributions; visit www.greenbrier.org or the Greenbrier River Watershed Association’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/greenbrier.watershed, for their thank-you list of the many sponsors and supporters of the Earth Day event.
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