Four-year-old Kaylyn Hochstetter was not afraid to get her hands dirty this Earth Day as she rolled up clay, seeds and compost to make “seed bombs” that she could scatter about and watch bloom this spring.
Hochstetter, along with her little brother and mom, were participating in an interactive display at The Grow Haus table at Denver’s Earth Day Fair in Civic Center Park on Wednesday.
The 45-year-old event, put on by the Denver Department of Environmental Health , is a free fair that celebrates Earth Day with sustainable food trucks, educational displays and environmentally friendly local businesses showing off their services.
“It looked like a cool thing to take the kids to,” said Kristen Hochstetter , Kaylyn’s mom. “It’s never too early to teach them about Earth Day.”
Business folks in the downtown Denver area lunched at the event, schools took field trips to check it out and even Mayor Michael Hancock stopped by for a tour.
“This event is a reminder to do things necessary to protect our planet every day,” Hancock said.
The fair focused on five facets of sustainability this year, said Denver Department of Environmental Health program director Julie Saporito : energy, food, transportation, water and waste.
“These initiatives are really in Denver’s nature,” Saporito said.
In 2012, Earth Day Denver became the first large-scale, city-sponsored event to be zero waste, the department of environmental health said. This includes exhibitors and food trucks providing only locally recyclable, compostable or reusable materials and attendees being taught which bin to use for their trash.
Tony Massaro biked to the event and said he enjoyed learning about composting.
“You’ve got to turn out for Earth Day, right?” he said.
University of Denver student Madi Engebretson was on a class trip to the fair when she spotted the Denver Police Department giving Segway tutorials. She hopped on the zero-emission transportation system and began zooming around Civic Center Park with police guidance.
“It’s been great,” Engebretson said. “I’ve test-driven an electric car and learned a lot about environmentally friendly products. Something like this is good for a big city like Denver.”
Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-954-1223, ehernandez@denverpost.com or
