The Brown Family Environmental Center (BFEC) invites the Kenyon community to celebrate Ohio’s beautiful wildlife at “Keep It Wild: Earth Day at the Brown Family Environmental Center” on Saturday, April 21, from noon to 4 p.m.
Guests can enjoy live music and tasty treats from the Truckin’ Delicious food truck. They can also purchase local goods, including fresh eggs, native flowers and honey from local farms and small businesses. Those looking for a more hands-on Earth Day celebration can participate in a number of activities, from building bluebird boxes, bat houses, and homes for native bumblebees to observing live animals from several wildlife centers, including the Columbus Zoo.
Thomas Cooper Lippert ’18, a student manager at the BFEC, believes the event is more than just an opportunity to celebrate nature through good food and great fun — it’s also a chance to recognize the unmatched power of the natural world. “It’s good to step back and remember why awareness and sustainability are so important,” Lippert said.”Earth Day can remind everyone that what is so important is the physical space we inhabit.”
In fact, each exhibition aims to give visitors the opportunity to interact with nature in a rare and intimate way. At the BFEC on April 21, the fight for sustainability does not rely on facts and figures to ignite change: the beautiful biota speaks for itself. BFEC Manager Noelle Jordan calls the featured plants and animals their own “wildlife ambassadors.” She believes that direct interactions with the land will spark a curiosity in nature that can lead to active change.
“The earth and its ecological systems support us and everything we do,” Jordan said. “We hope that events like this will inspire our guests to learn more about the earth and to perhaps take some small measure to help us protect it.”
Lippert reiterated Jordan’s goals for the BFEC’s Earth Day celebration. “I’m hoping a lot of people come and enjoy themselves — and hopefully raise a sense of responsibility toward the world we call home.”