Volunteers prepare to lend many hands for Earth Day 2013

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Volunteers filled bags with trash and collected discarded microwaves around the Lake Tashmoo boat launch during last years beach clean-up. — File photo by Sean O' Connor

Vineyarders will get a head start on Earth Day, officially celebrated on Monday, April 22, with a variety of weekend events that include a beach cleanup, art displays, and tours.

The first Earth Day was celebrated 34 years ago on April 22, 1970. Now an international event, Vineyarders will do their part to honor Mother Earth beginning with a beach cleanup.

Saturday beach clean-up

The Vineyard Conservation Society (VCS) will sponsor its 21st annual Earth Day Beach Clean-up Saturday, from 10 am to noon. There will be food and refreshments at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown after the cleanup.

“Earth Day is every day, and where better to celebrate it than on a Vineyard beach?” VCS said in a press release. “It is important that we take responsibility for the Island’s beaches, one of our most precious resources.

“VCS has sponsored this initiative not only as a way of encouraging community support for Earth Day, but also as a means of fostering an appreciation and respect for the natural beauty of the Island.”

The Eastville Beach clean-up is sponsored by The Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank. Internet radio station WMVY will broadcast live from Eastville Beach Saturday morning.

The Harbor View Hotel will host the after-cleanup party. Volunteers will be able to eat and compare treasure hunting stories with other beach cleaners. Children will receive a free special edition Jules Feiffer T-shirt by ShirtsbyTed, while supplies last.

Other local organizations returning this year to participate at designated beaches include the Lagoon Pond Association, Friends of Sengekontacket, Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah, Tisbury Waterways, Inc., MV Surfcasters Association, Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, the Squibnocket Association, Sassafras, MV Rod and Gun Club, Rotary Club of MV and Comcast Cares.

New additions to the volunteer list include the Tisbury School, the Church of Latter Day Saints, the MV Striped Bass and Bluefish Committee, Cub Scout Packs 90 and 93, and the Dukes County Trial Court, Community Service Program.

Full-color Earth Day posters can be downloaded from the VCS website.

Volunteers will be on hand to coordinate activity at the beaches. Call the VCS office at 508-693-9588 with questions, or to volunteer to coordinate a beach not on the list. For more information go to vineyardconservation.org.

VCS cleanup list

The following beaches are slated for a cleanup: Aquinnah: Lobsterville, Philbin, Gay Head; Chilmark: Squibnocket, Menemsha, Lucy Vincent; Edgartown: Fuller Street, Lighthouse Beach, South Beach (left and right fork), State Beach (Bend in the Road); Oak Bluffs: Eastville Point, State Beach (Little Bridge), Town Beach (SSA to Inkwell); Tisbury: Lagoon Pond Landing, Lake Street Landing, Tashmoo Opening, Owen Little Way, Grove Ave. Beach, Hines Point, Owen Park, V.H. harbor (SSA to RM Packer); West Tisbury: Cedar Tree Neck, Lambert’s Cove.

Pathways

Also Saturday, from 2 to 6 pm, Pathways, a Chilmark gallery and performance space located at the Chilmark Tavern near Beetlebung Corner will present “Opening of Space Arts, Imaginary Gardens & Landscapes,” as part of the gallery’s Oceans Wilderness series.

Island musician Michele Jones will perform new songs, meditations on the stewardship of the Earth’s resources.

Art, writings, videography and collaborative forms will be presented that celebrate the Earth’s surfaces, spring blooms, and space exploration, with homage to International Earth Day.

West Tisbury author Anna Edey will share plans from her new book on engaged sustainability and her dreams of thriving human habitats for single and collective living. Island gardeners and landscapers will share their artistry with imagined and realized growing spaces.

COMSOG open house

The nonprofit Community Solar Greenhouse (COMSOG) will celebrate Earth Day on Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm at its greenhouse at 114 New York Ave, Oak Bluffs. COMSOG invites gardeners to “get an early start on greening your garden and home. Help with potting up herbs, flowers, and veggies. There will be beautiful early-flowering baskets for sale and more, hot dogs too.”

Contact Chris Legge 508-693-2019 for more information.

Do the Math

Also Sunday, a newly organized environmental group, 350 Martha’s Vineyard, will present a movie for Earth Day eve, “Do the Math. Climate Change Is Here!” The 42-minute educational film will be screened at 7 pm on at the Howes House across from Alley’s Store in West Tisbury. Admission is free. There will be a panel discussion about climate change after the film.

The group has partnered with the international group 350.org, according to the local group’s founder Bill McKibben.

“We’re no longer at the point of trying to stop global warming,” he said. “It’s too late for that. We’re trying to keep it from becoming a complete and utter calamity.” The film will offer encouraging advice, as well as chilling facts, according to a press release. For more information, call 508-560-6111, or go to www.350.org/math.

Planet Ocean

On Monday, Earth Day, Robert McLean hosts a special screening of the documentary feature film, “Planet Ocean,” at the Chilmark Tavern, 9 State Rd, Chilmark, at 7 pm.

Mr. McLean will lead a community discussion of ocean stewardship after the movie. Presented by Pathways Projects and Yann Arthus-Bertrand and the Goodplanet Foundation, the screening is a Martha’s Vineyard premiere. Poets Marianne Goldberg, Fan Ogilvie, and Robert MacLean will read from their work. Peter MacLean and Wes Nagy will provide music.

For more information on the film go to goodplanet.org.