Circle ’round for for a brief, heart-warming, and perhaps eerily prophetic story from my childhood. (And read till the end–there’s a treat.)
In 1988, my town’s annual Earth Day poster contest held a special prize: The winning design was to be printed on T-shirts that would be distributed to students at the Sandwich Central Elementary School and available for sale to parents and other adults in the community. There I was, a young girl armed with passion for the earth, appreciation for the animals and plants that live on it, a full box of markers, and a blank sheet of paper. My message was simple: Keep Earth Alive: RECYCLE. The words wrapped around a drawing of the earth, each continent and ocean playing host to an animal native to its land or water. I remember drawing the antlers of a moose in North America, the oversize beak of a toucan in South America, a humpback whale in the Atlantic… At top right is the newspaper clipping my mom saved to commemorate the event of my winning the contest–my two sisters are with me showing off the T-shirts. Though the poster, which I had so carefully colored in, was to be printed in black and white, the T-shirts, at least, ranged in color. My sisters each chose green and blue T-shirts, respectively, while my dad ordered the vibrant pink T-shirt shown here. He wore it for many years, and it bears a few ink stains–the requisite mark of an art teacher.
In the spirit of Earth Day contests, here’s one for you: Before midnight tonight, let us know in the comments what you’re doing to celebrate Earth Day, and be automatically entered to win a signed copy of Generation T: Beyond Fashion. Here’s where it gets interesting: Five finalists will be drawn at random and announced on the site tomorrow, April 23, 2011 at noon EST. A final challenge will be issued and the first of the finalists to correctly answer the trivia question posed is the winner! (Hint: Having a copy of Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt on hand for reference will be infinitely helpful.)
Tags: Earth Day, holiday giveaway, Keep Earth Alive: Recycle, T-shirt embellishing
[ Posted on April 22nd, 2011 ]
I teach my elementary art students how important it is to recycle and reuse. We have a recycle paper box, a reuse paper box, and a list of items to bring from home instead of trashing so we can use it in the art studio. I have a storage room full of egg cartons, plastic containers, and more. For the past 2 weekd grades K-5 created art out of trash for Earth Day!
I am going to shut off all of the lights in my house, turn of the T.V., get up off my butt and go take a walk through the woods at The Dinosaur Crossing with my whole family. We will play on the ropes, climb on the playscape, take a nice long guided walk through there woods and SEE SOME DINOSAURS!!!!!!!
I’m also going to (when I get home):
Make some T-shirt bags for family and friends
Fuse some plastic bags to gether into a laptop case
Make some bracelets out of t-shirt scraps
Recycle some crayons into a GIANT RAINBOW CRAYON OF EPIC AWESOMENESS
plant some strawberries!!!!!
plant some bulbs that grow in the shade
plant some bulbs that will grow in the sun
And, if it rains, RUN AROUND IN SOME PUDDLES!!!!!!!!
oh, and turn off the computer in 5432…..1
I’m also going to dig out some old school papers and make origami boats to float in those puddles!!!!
I will hang my clothes out to dry, and give up the dryer for the rest of the summer. It takes more time to hang out laundry but it smells great and uses no fossil fuel, unless you count me.
Very few of my suburban neighbors hang laundry out, maybe I can start a trend in my little corner of the world. I recycled 3 toddler t-shirts to make my clothes pin bag, it has a Princess on the front.
Go out and explore the wilderness, turn off the lights, and do all the refashioning a busy 13 year old can do!
I am always trying to consume less, and if I need to make a purchase, I try to pick something that is organic and/or fair trade (preferably both).
Today, I bought organic shaving foam for my husband (recyclable or reusable bottle without synthetics). And then later I will be putting together a journal with paper already used on one side, and loose leaf rings.
I did want to prepare my veggie patch with the compost in the yard, but everything is still frozen, unfortunately.
Happy Earth Day! Let’s make everyday earth day!
Anne
I will be creating my Easter outfit out of thrifted clothes from the local charity stores.
Turning off lights
Not using my car
Working in my vegetable garden and using some of my veggies to creating dinner.
My husband is in the hospital, but we have kept most the lights off in his hospital room, and I have been reading him books I bought used.
We enjoyed this special day being outdoors, at the mountains with my kids the whole day. There’s nothing better than being in contact with our mother Earth.
Feeling that we are part of nature. So we can care for our planet as if it were our self. For healing our planet, as well as our own lives.
[…] the five finalists chosen at random from the yesterday’s Earth Day Giveaway entries are Jessica W., Susan B., Kiki, Martha, and Anne N. St. Louis! Finalists, listen […]