Caron Rice, Kaleb Blumenberg and Matthew Lively help
display some of the decorated Walt’s Foods shopping
bags. (Photo by Marilyn Thomas/HF Chronicle)
School in Homewood decorated
Walt’s Foods bags with colorful
displays of the planet. (Photo by
Marilyn Thomas/HF Chronicle)
As the country marks Earth Day Wednesday, April 22, shoppers at Walt’s Foods in Homewood will get a specially created message marking the day.
Hundreds of decorated shopping bags with Earth Day-themed drawings will end up in homes thanks to students at St. Joseph School in Homewood. Manager Jerry Skafgaard said this is probably the 10th year the students have undertaken this project.
make for a lovely Earth Day
picture created by a St. Joseph
School student. (Photo by
Marilyn Thomas/HF Chronicle)
“We give them a few hundred bags and they come back decorated. We’ll use them on Wednesday. It’s a nice thing they do. It’s fun, and it’s something we’re glad to do for the community,” he said.
The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 in conjunction with a United Nations Conference. It originally was marked on March 21, the first day of spring. The United States declared Earth Day as April 22, and that is the date that is marked around the world.
Earth Day even has its own Earth Day Anthem by William Wallace. It is sung to the melody of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”:
Joyful, joyful we adore our Earth in all its wonderment,
Simple gifts of nature that all join into a paradise.
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time.With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world.
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time.With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world.
