earthday365’s Executive Director, Dr. Jess Watson, has announced a series of reimagined, socially distanced Earth Day celebrations around the theme of Days of Resilience.

“While we’re sad not to be able to gather again this year, this is an opportunity to bring together lessons we’ve learned over the past year about resiliency and find new ways to celebrate the Earth safely,” said Dr. Watson. “We’re emphasizing hands-on instead of virtual.”

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic municipal restrictions on large events, earthday365’s historic St. Louis Earth Day Festival, which draws over 40,000 people to the Muny grounds in Forest Park every April, has been cancelled for the second year in a row. earthday365 has instead created Earth Day Celebration Kits, an online Resilience Speaker Series, Green Dining Week, and three volunteer events in Pine Lawn, O’Fallon Park, and Dutchtown South. It will also be selling a “Saving the World by Staying Home” T-shirt commemorating the years 2020-21 when the pandemic disrupted the festival (order here) and launching a raffle featuring family friendly getaways.  The full festival schedule can be found at https://earthday-365.org/earth-month-2021/.

In lieu of a large, in-person festival in April, the Earth Day Celebration Kits, sponsored by the Metropolitan Sewer District, Great Rivers Greenway, Metro Lighting, and the St. Louis Aquarium Foundation, offer sustainable gifts and guided activities including upcycled crafts, scavenger hunts, community science, and more. Each bag includes Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Packets, a collapsible metal travel straw, LED bulbs, a build a habitat activity, free tickets to Trailnet’s Bike Scavenger Hunt, a map to Forest ReLeaf’s Great Tree Hunt, and more. A few special bags will also include a jar of honey from RudeBee Apiary, a free native tree voucher from Forest ReLeaf, and other surprise gifts. Sign up to receive your bag here.

earthday365’s Resilience Speaker Series culminates with noted architect Mary Ann Lazarus’ online keynote address at 3 p.m. on April 23 on “Resilience and the Power of Community” (Register here). The organization  is also partnering with the Missouri Historical Society’s Global Freshwater Summit to offer a free screening of Mark Ruffalo’s environmental documentary “The Invisible Hand” and a filmmaker panel discussion 6 p.m. on April 20. At 9 a.m. on April 22, earthday365 will be hosting a panel on Watershed Resiliency through Food Waste Reduction and Food Justice, featuring Maggie McCoy of the Earthways Center, Nick Speed of Ujima, and Tyrean Lewis of Heru Urban Farms. Register here.

Green Dining Week, sponsored by StraightUp Solar, Garcia Properties, and Sauce Magazine will be held from April 16 to 25 and features Green Dining Alliance restaurants that will offer special menu items where 20 percent of the proceeds from sales go to earthday365. Restaurants include Avenue, Buzz’s Hawaiian Grill, Clementine’s, The Dam, Flavor 360, 1111 Mississippi, Kitchen House Coffee, Kounter Kulture, Living Room, PW Pizza, SqWires, Vin de Set, Whisk, The Wolf, and more. For more information click here.

Earth Day 2021’s Days of Resilience also includes socially distanced volunteer opportunities tackling the environmental justice issues of food apartheid and illegal dumping in partnership with local communities and sponsored by The Employee Community Fund of Boeing St. Louis, and the Missouri Department of Conservation. See full schedule here. Volunteer opportunities include:

  • April 10 – Garden work day with A Red Circle and Custom Foodscaping at the North County Agricultural Education Center in Pine Lawn, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
  • April 18 – O’Fallon park clean-up with the North Newstead Association and the Young Friends of earthday365, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
  • April 24 – Dutchtown South clean-up with the Dutchtown South Racial Alliance.

Sign up to volunteer here.

For more information, visit https://earthday-365.org/earth-month-2021/