Orlando Earth Day

Britton Hollingsworth helps plant his school's tree as part of the Multifaith Education Project, Trees for Peace.

The city of Winter Park, Florida celebrated Earth Day by planting trees in their downtown park, giving away hundreds of free trees to residents, and by sponsoring a unique multi-faith planting ceremony that brought together children from Islamic, Jewish, and Christian schools. Ecofactory was on location to join in the festivities, and to give you a glimpse of Earth Day in a Tree City.

Earth Day in Orlando, Florida

Oddly enough, many cities celebrate Earth Day on days besides April 22. While this allows you to spend this day with your family on a weekend, it can make finding large-scale Earth Day activities difficult to come by on the 22nd. In Orlando, the largest festivities were taking place in Winter Park, where residents were given free trees, care instruction, and participated in the planting of a 100 gallon live oak.

In a nearby piece of Central Park, FL, middle-schoolers were bussed to the park from three schools of different religious backgrounds: the Hebrew Dayschool, the Leader's Prepatory School (formerly known as the Muslim Academy of Central Florida), and Orangewood Christian School. This inspiring event was organized by Louise F. Sheehy, a 25 year human-rights veteran and 2006 recipient of Amnesty International's Human Rights Activist of the Year award.

In Sanford, Florida, the Central Florida Zoo displayed a special presentation including some of the slides presented in an Inconvenient Truth, the now famous documentary produced by Al Gore. Their large event will occur on Friday, April 25th as they kick off Party for the Planet, a country-wide celebration in zoos across America.

In Lake Buena Vista, the southern area of Orlando that Disneyland, Universal, and a myriad of other international attractions call home, a special showing of Disneynature's new film "Earth" was aired to eager audiences. This special unveiling allowed moviegoers to get a glimpse of Disney's new production studio, using talent previously assembled for the ultra-successful March of the Penguins and Discovery Channel's Planet Earth.

Lastly, visitors to Orlando's metro landmark, Lake Eola, will notice something new; a floating section of soil, drifting around the western side of the lake. This piece of symbolic art was created by environmental artist Jefrë Manuel, a world-renowned name in creating green art with meaning. The piece, which symbolizes Lake Eola's urban integration and the sinkhole that is the basis for the lake, will be on display for about a month.