Do you run the water while you brush your teeth? Do you leave the lights on in rooms not in use throughout your home? Do you think about what you buy, how it was made, and where it comes from before you make a purchase?
In addition to providing food, live music, and fun activities, the Secaucus Summer Green Festival being held Aug. 20 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mill Creek Point Park will provide visitors with knowledge to put environmentally friendly habits into daily practice.
“A happy community starts with a healthy environment.” – Amanda Nesheiwat
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Canoe rides, crustaceans, and conservation
In its first year, the festival explores what it means to go green and combines learning opportunities about conservation, preservation, and sustainability with regular summer fair attractions. The town expects 600 to 1,000 people to attend.
Visitors can enjoy a canoe ride through Mill Creek Marsh, take in a yoga class in the early morning, and learn about endangered species from the Tenafly Nature Center or crustaceans from the Turtle Back Zoo.
Kids can participate in a fossil digging zone, jump in the Balloon House, or make crafts. Home Depot will present on energy conservation and the Hudson County Improvement Authority will present on composting and rainwater collection.
“A happy community starts with a healthy environment,” said Amanda Nesheiwat about what it means for the community to be sustainable. She organizes the Summer Green Festival as the chairperson of the town environmental committee and Green Team. Nesheiwat, a summer intern, studies environmental science at Ramapo College.
“Sustainability is a balance,” said Nesheiwat, “Balance is realizing that every decision that you make affects something somewhere else in the world. So when you take too many resources you are not leaving enough for everyone else.”
Exploring Mill Creek Point Park
The town will dedicate a new dog park the day of the festival and hand out bowls and bones. Mill Creek Point is a 3-acre park preserved and built by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission with a riverfront walkway, picnic tables, and a launch for canoes, kayaks and small watercraft.
“It is probably the only place in the world you can canoe in an area where you think you could be in the Everglades but then you look up and see the Empire State Building,” said Gonnelli.
The Boy Scouts will spend the night in the park and are responsible for cleanup.
The festival is part of the town’s efforts to qualify for Sustainable Jersey funding and receive bronze level certification that requires the town to meet 150 environmentally-friendly action points.
For more details, call Town Hall at (201) 330-2000 or visit: www.secaucusnj.org.
Adriana Rambay Fernández may be reached at afernandez@hudsonreporter.com.