Saturday is Earth Day, and there are plenty of opportunities to get involved with the community and to help Mother Nature.
From 10 am to noon, the Vineyard Conservation Society will host its annual Earth Day Beach Cleanup. All are encouraged to help clean on two dozen or so beaches across the Island. A list of beaches is below.
Prizes will be given out for the “coolest, grossest, and most unusual things” found on the beach, according to the Conservation Society.
But new this year, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum — with the help of several other Island organizations — is hosting an Earth Day beach clean-up afterparty.
The public is invited to the museum to meet with and listen to presentations from volunteers and staff from 18 Island environmental organizations like the Great Pond Foundation, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, and the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation. There will be interactive activities for families, touch tanks, as well as a community sing.
Museum executive director Heather Seger says the hope is the celebration will become an annual event. The weather is looking good for Saturday, she said, and the museum is expecting a couple of hundred attendees.
The event will also include a scavenger hunt of sorts that will connect the museum’s exhibits to the environmental movement.
The Vineyard Transit Authority is offering free rides to anyone going to the beach clean-up. Attendees are encouraged to walk, bike, carpool, or ride public transit.
Here are the beaches where the Earth Day clean-up will take place:
Aquinnah: Lobsterville, Philbin, Tribal beaches
Chilmark: Lucy Vincent, Menemsha, Squibnocket
Edgartown: Felix Neck, Fuller Street, Lighthouse Beach, Norton Point, South Beach (Left and Right Forks), State Beach (Bend in the Road), Wasque Point
Oak Bluffs: Eastville Point, Jetty Beach, North Bluff (Pier) Beach, Shellfish Hatchery, State Beach (Little Bridge), Town Beach (SSA to Pay Beach and Inkwell)
Tisbury: Lagoon Pond Landing, Lake St. Landing, Owen Little Way, Owen Park, Tashmoo Opening, V.H. Harbor (waterfront from SSA all the way to Shell Station)
West Tisbury: Cedar Tree Neck, Lambert’s Cove, Long Point.
