This year was the first time that the Brooklyn Centre Naturalists joined the ranks of exhibitors at the Earth Day Coalition’sEarth Fest at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo on April 19th. The day started with BCN volunteers Daryl Davis, Tom Romito, Ellen O’Neill & Evan Survance greeting Earth Fest visitors and spreading the word about their Registered Wildlife Urban Community Project as well as offering information about a variety of subjects such as neighbor friendly wildlife gardening and attracting butterflies with flowering plants. Later in the afternoon, the second shift of volunteers, Greg Cznadel, Joe Mestnik, Tim Ferris and David Boyce took over and continued to pass out literature about things such as bird feeders and backyard ponds. They also passed out the National Wildlife Federation's booklet, “Outdoor Family Fun” to all the youngsters who stopped by the booth. And all day long, the BCN volunteers made sure that information about the Brooklyn Centre Naturalists upcoming event, "Rain Gardens & Rain Barrels,"a presentation which will be given by Jan Rybka of the Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District, at 2:00 pm on Saturday, May 23rd was shared with everyone. This program will be held at and co-hosted by the Brooklyn branch of Cleveland Public Library, 3706 Pearl Rd.
One of the fun things they did during Earth Fest was have two baskets for raffling off. One was a basket full of wonderful things to use in a backyard garden and the other was a basket for starting a bird-friendly yard. At the end of the day the winners were drawn and they are: for the Garden Basket, the winner was Frederick Scott Kovach from Parma Hts., and for the Bird Basket the winner was Donna Hach from Garfield Hts. The BCN thanks everyone who bought a raffle ticket to support out cause. Also a big thanks to Greg Cznadel for putting together the raffle baskets. Great job.
It was a lot of work but Earth Fest was a fun and successful day for the members of the BCN, as they enlightened Zoo visitors and promoted all of the good things about our neighborhood that many of us already knew about.
David Boyce, Tim Ferris and Greg Cznadel manning
the Earth Fest booth.

I found it especially nice to be working behind a new sign with a new logo handing out a new brochure with a new design by Darren Hamm. Everything felt so new. So promising. Like spring.
Posted by: Gloria Ferris | April 22, 2009 at 12:43 AM