It’s the day to get your green on!

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin established this day to inspire people to take action for the planet and confront environmental challenges great and small. Now the movement is an international one, with the Earth Day Network holding events year-round in cooperation with partner organizations located in some 192 countries.

Suzanne Carr and Jennifer Kattan

Suzanne Carr (L) and Jennifer Kattan were our ace volunteers at the North Charleston Earth Day festival last Saturday.

 

To mark the 45th anniversary of this annual observance, IPPL celebrated with a display at the Earth Day festival in nearby North Charleston last Saturday.

What’s in the landfill?

What’s in the landfill? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

Despite the on-again-off-again rain and proliferating mud puddles, we had a great time “monkeying around” and letting people know that 2015 is also the International Year of the Gibbon. Yeah!

Adorable child

Adorable children and their families stopped by to check out our display. “No, there are no gibbons hiding underneath the table….”

 

Like many Earth Day festivals, this one is a family-friendly event. Our ace volunteers Suzanne Carr and Jennifer Kattan had fun with the kids, giving out stickers and pens, snapping photos of adorable little ones, and answering questions. (“No, we don’t have any gibbons hiding underneath the table….”) They’re both naturals at doing outreach!

Jennifer

Jennifer talked about the IPPL sanctuary to visitors.

 

Suzanne

Suzanne got folks to sign up for a drawing for a free gibbon T-shirt.

 

Once the sun came out, we also unpacked our awesome gibbon suit, with anatomically correct white face ring, white hands, and extra-long arms. What better day to do the Funky Gibbon?

The Funky Gibbon

I got to do the Funky Gibbon with new friends!

 

Our neighbors underneath the welcome canopy were educating visitors about snake and turtle rescue, and their critters weren’t especially bothered by the rain. According to one regular event participant, every other year Earth Day around here is a somewhat soggy affair. So next year’s weather should be fantastic!

See you then?