Earth Day Weekend Day One: 2022

I hope your communities are marking Earth Day in significant ways. Fort Wayne has an entire weekend of events planned from cleanup and tree planting at Save Maumee, to documentary films at Beacon Heights Church of the Brethren. Saturday there will be a conference at Plymouth Congregational Church. Sunday will be the big Earth Day event at Eagle Marsh.

So today I drove to New Haven to see just what Save Maumee was all about. The organization has been around for years and has focused on service projects that work toward restoring the health of the Maumee River. They received a land donation of 58 acres and now focus on the restoration of that land. The land is surrounded by water on three sides, the river, and a ditch. To the east is a farm with sheep. That is pretty cool when you realize you can look across the street and the city is right in front of you. To the west is an open field. They are using this as an incubator farm. Members of the Burmese refugee community use the land to learn to farm/garden North American vegetables.

Volunteers, community members, and the curious arrived to hike and to serve. A student from Purdue Fort Wayne was busy planting trees. Others were cleaning up the trails. Some were removing invasive plants and making room for elderberry, pecan, and black oak trees.
The work will continue on Saturday and will be joined by Heartland Community Seed Swap.

The pandemic has dampened my community involvement. After two years it was good to see Lauren Conklin, a Save Maumee vice president. Lauren was doing what she always does, making a difference.