April 24, 2015 at 1:43 p.m.
Youth, adults attend the Sustainability Fair
Youth, adults attend the Sustainability Fair
By Kayla Thomason-
"It's pretty cool, my husband and I just came to see what it's about and I'm really interested in renewable energy sources, so I'm kind of wanting to see what is out there as far as what we can do in our future," said fair attendee, Amanda Bowen.
"I think (the Sustainability Fair is) great," said Olivia Miller, student and first-time attendee. "I created a seed-art thingamajiggy."
At one of the booths Miller and other guests glued various seeds to small paper plates, creating different designs.
Miller said she was excited to try the essential oils and hopes to come again next year.
Ann Eshelman, co-chair of Sustainability Northwoods, was thrilled by the community's response to the fair.
"It's an enormous turnout, it's by far the biggest turnout we've ever had before and we're just excited," she said, noting the size of the crowd exceeded her expectations. "I've really enjoyed talking to the kids that are here, it's really made the fair very lively to have all the young people involved."
"Earth Day is pretty much falling out of favor, people don't even think about it anymore, it's kind of an 'old person's thing,' but I think it's a good thing to celebrate and to get kids thinking about various alternatives of sustainability," she added.
Eshelman said she hopes the children will take these ideas, share them with their parents and carry them into their adulthood.
Not only did the guests enjoy the fair, so did the vendors.
"We're enjoying it, we're actually enjoying all the kids that are coming by our booth and being able to smell the teas and their reaction to it," said Shanna Stein of Green Rich Tea in Saint Germain. "They're like 'whoa, this smells good.' It's a lot of fun to actually see kids being excited about tea."
She added that children wanted to try tea, and many parents didn't think they would like it, but once the children got a whiff of it they were pleasantly surprised by the fruity or spicy aromas.
"(I love) everything about (the sustainability fair)," Stein said. "Everyone here in this space is looking to create a better world for our future."
Not only did students explore what booths had to offer, some were running their own stations.
"I'm actually really surprised at how many students are here from MHLT and all over and it's really exciting talking to them too, because they're so curious as to what we are and what we're doing here," said Sylvia Kauth, vice president of the Lakeland Union Environmental Club.
She and Sophia Weiss, president of the Lakeland Union Environmental Club, attended the fair last year. This was their first year having a booth.
"We're talking (to the guests) about all of our projects as a club, the new bins we just bought, our new water bottles," said Weiss. "We do a lot of stuff as a club and not many people know about it."
Freda Waalkens, secretary for the Oneida County Beekeepers Association and treasurer of the Hodag Farmers' Market also had a booth. She has been a part of the fair for five years.
She had a hive of contained live bees, fresh honey to taste, books on bees and a selection of goods people can find at the farmers' market.
"I think it's very good this year, I think we're getting a good assortment of people, we have some kids that are really enjoying our honey," Waalkens said with a grin.
She shared information on the bees' plight, how valuable they are and how to care for them.
"We need a lot more bees in this area, we need a lot more beekeepers and bees are not hard to raise and they're not ferocious, nobody's going to get stung unless they deliberately try to," she said.
Beekeeping is not a cheap hobby to start, but it is easy to maintain, according to Waalkens, who added it's a year-round hobby.
She also told visitors to her booth that the farmers' market has been running for 24 to 25 years. It started out with four vendors and now has up to 40.
The market will open for the season May 23 and run through the third week in October.
"I think (the Sustainability Fair is) a good thing to do, it wakes people up to what's available in the area," Waalkens said.
Local musicians and a roundtable discussion wrapped up the afternoon.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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