Earth Day in Point Boro on Sat. Will Be Even Better than Last Year

Rides, games, food, live musical performances and lots of helpful tips about how to make your life more "green" will be among the offerings at Earth Day at Riverfront Park, River Road, in Point Borough on Saturday.

The event, run by the Point Pleasant Environmental Commission and our crew of event volunteers, is slated to run from noon to 4pm, with the raindate scheduled for Sunday. But we aren't going to need that raindate ; ).

We have what appears to be our largest number of registered exhibitors at 66. 

Exhibits include the Ocean County Mosquito Commission, Citizens Rights to Access Beaches, Barnegat Bay Partnership, Viridian Energy, Clean Ocean Action, Point Pleasant Climate Action Committee, Reclam the Bay, Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education among many other environmental groups, other non-profit groups, crafters and other small businesses. We are very excited and grateful for all of the interest in our event. 

The theme for this year's 4th and 5th Grade T-shirt poster contest is “Strive to be Mosquito Free”, concentrating on what to do at home to safely control mosquitoes. 

The focal point for this year's Earth Day theme will be to teach the uses of alternative methods for mosquito control and to stress that 'Mosquito Control Starts at Home.'

The Commission will officially present the awards to the winners of the T-shirt contest as well as announce the two recipients of the Commission's scholarships at 12:30 p.m.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, the event will also feature rides and games provided by Spacewalk of Ocean County, food provided by Jersey Shore BBQ, Shore Fresh Seafood, and Cool Concessions Ice Cream, and music performed by the Soup Sandwich Band, the Sherman Brothers with Ed Austin and a special performance by Vin-Taze, a talented group of 11-year old rockers.

Other special events include the 'Catwalk' Fundraiser by Point Paws (the Boro's Trap, Neuter, Release and Adoption program) at 1:30pm, the Clean Ocean Action Spring Beach Sweeps beach clean up at River and Maxson Ave. (9am to 12:30), the Warriors of Wrestling Earth Day wrestling event, as well as other events by the exhibitors.

I can't thank the sponsors enough; if it wasn't for them, we would have a very tough time doing this event.  

This year's key sponsors are: Jersey Shore Pirates, Ocean First Bank, CME Associates, CJKreative Enterprises, Bubbakoo Burrito, Dairy Queen, Honey Tree Pre-School and Daycare, Intercoastal Appraisal Service, Four Point Heating, Cooling and Solar Energy, Special T Graphics, Remax Bay Point Realtors, Law Offices of Dasti, Murphy, McGuckin, Ulaky, Cherkos and Connors, Get Tanked Aquarium Services, Opti Job Search, Social and Mobile Recruiting, Print Tech Commercial Printing, Crystal Chiropractic, Law Offices of Leitner, Tort, DeFazio, Leitner & Brause, P.C., Beaver Dam Hardware, M. E. Sabosik Associates Inc., C.R.A.B. (Citizens Rights to Access Beaches), O'Brien Funeral Home and the N.J. Greyhound Adoption Program. 

Check them out, visit them, shop from them, utilize their services, or all of the above. These are the business people who give back to the community.

The Commission is always looking for sponsors and donations; for those interested in sponsoring or looking for more information about the event or about the Environmental Commission, contact us at pointboroec@gmail.com. 

All proceeds fund the annual scholarships awarded to local high school seniors, the savings bonds and prizes for the winners of the poster contest, and the operations and incidentals of the event itself.

I am going to be providing regular updates for the event here on Patch and up to the minute updates on our Facebook event page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/222130751227909/  and  https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=69039089749.

Other Events:

If you are looking for something green to do before and after Earth Day in Point, there are a few things coming up...

04/21 - Clean Ocean Action Spring Beach Sweeps - Beach clean up at the River and Maxson Ave. beaches (9am to 12:30) - One of the longest running cleanups of its kind in the world (see flyer)

04/21 - Shred Day - Ocean First Bank- 2400 Bridge Avenue (9am to 11am) - An opportunity to dispose their confidential information and contribute to the environment at the same time (see flyer)

04/28 - Pick-a-Park Walk and Clean-up Day - Borough Hall (8:30am, finishing with a light lunch at 11:30am at Riverfront Park) - Combining cleanup efforts for our community parks and other high use areas in town and implement an active-living initiative in the community with the ultimate goal of improving health to the residents (see flyer)

5/9 - Barnegat Bay Blitz - Watershed-wide clean up in 37 communities, including Point Pleasant - Kick-off location TBD (8:30am to 4pm)

Or, if you can't do any of this, just pick up trash that you may see around town and throw it out...all too often there is plenty of it..

See you Saturday and see you around town.