Paterson, NJ – Celebrate Earth Day at Eastside Park with City Green! On Saturday, April 22nd from 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM, City Green invites community members and families to “Earth Day Festival” for nature crafts, gardening lessons, giveaways, and more.
The Earth Day Festival is a wonderful opportunity for the Paterson community to come together and make a positive impact by engaging in nature-based activities and taking an active role in planting out Eastside Park’s Learning Garden. The garden in turn supports local wildlife and the children who come to Eastside Park to learn, play and feel more connected to nature where they live.
This special free event will feature children’s activities that include story time; spring veggie taste tests; plant your own lettuce station; nature crafts including mud creations, seed collages, and seed sensory activities; scavenger hunts; planting veggies and seeds; lawn games including corn hole and connect four; a gratitude tree; and more!
Several Paterson small businesses will also be in attendance: Deacon Davis’ Green Acre Community Garden will be selling houseplants, Beyond the Classroom will provide additional educational activities, and Green Mojo will present a rain barrel demonstration.
“At the core of Earth Day is the celebration of our community as a valuable and inseparable part of nature and the local ecosystem. With opportunities to plant in the gardens, take part in nature-based activities, and learn more about our environment, the Earth Day Festival will be a great opportunity for the Paterson community to join together in gratitude and action for the Earth.” said Liz Kleisner, City Green’s Director of Community Horticulture.
City Green’s one-and-a-half acre Learning Garden at Eastside Park features six raised garden beds and an outdoor educational space that hosts hundreds of children each year at school field trips and summer garden camps. The Learning Garden was recently updated with the help of grant funding to include a new fence, a pavilion to provide a cool shade for visitors, an educational fruit orchard comprised of 30 apple trees, a harvest station, a compost station and other fun features like a grain garden, farm area, nature path, and berry plantings.
When arriving at the Learning Garden at Eastside Park, guests will see a circle with a statue located near Paterson’s Department of Recreation’s white house. Guests should park alongside the circle and enter the Learning Garden to the right of the white house. More information on arriving at the Learning Garden can be found here.
City Green is a 501(c)3 urban farming and gardening organization based in Clifton, New Jersey working to revitalize urban areas through agriculture and educational programming. It offers practical, technical, and financial resources in support of environmental stewardship, equitable access to healthy food, and ecologically sustainable communities. For more information contact Jasmine Moreano, Director of Community Engagement and Advocacy, or visit www.citygreenonline.org.