Last Saturday, Lake Eola was a gathering place for many environmental activists when a special Earth Day festival was held.
Earth Day, celebrated on April 22nd, is not only recognized on one day, but during the whole month of April. To honor what is known as “Earth Month,” many festivals and events are held in order to bring awareness to some of the most pressing environmental issues.
The Central Florida Earth Day celebration was presented by the Vegetarians of Central Florida, a group formed in order to educate the local communities about how to maintain a vegetarian or vegan diet.
Throughout the surrounding grounds of Lake Eola, many similar environmental organizations set up booths in order to teach those visiting the festival about such issues as sustainability, climate change, and deforestation.
Additionally, visitors were able to sample various vegan foods from different restaurants such as the Vegan Hot Dog Cart and the Dandelion Communitea Café. Local animal shelters also set up an area where people could visit with and adopt dogs without permanent homes. To round out the event, there were live acoustic performances by local artists as well as a children’s center, where the younger ages could learn about environmental concerns in a fun and understandable way.
The festival was a wonderful reminder of just how important maintaining the world is and served as a great educational tool by which the local communities could learn ways they could personally help the environment in order to keep it healthy for many generations to come.