Earth Day Event Slated for April 20 at St. Francis Convent

Self-guided tours with interactive components will be the featured Earth Day activities on April 20 on the Motherhouse grounds of the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, 3221 S. Lake Drive, St. Francis. All the activities are open to the public and there are no fees for attendance or for parking.

The tours will be outdoors and will highlight the large vegetable garden, compost area and new hoop house, existing fruit orchard, future urban forest and trail system, bee pods and hive boxes, bat house, grape arbor, wetland restoration and hermitage, says Jan Parrot, who is on the committee heading up the details for the day’s events. Maps of the grounds will be provided for everyone taking part in the program. In case of rain, as many of the displays as possible will be moved inside.

“The tours will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. that day, and will include an opening session with refreshments in Troubadour at the Motherhouse,” notes Sr. Helene Mertes, who is also involved with the planning and was a presenter for last year’s program. “All the events will have some interactive component if possible,” she states, and, “We are working at providing door prizes associated with the various stations on the tours.”

Earth Day was started in the United States by Wisconsin’s own Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970 to create awareness for the Earth’s environment and to encourage conservation efforts, Parrot explains. “It was taken international in 1990, and today more than 500 million people in 175 countries observe the event.” The official Earth Day for 2013 is Monday, April 22.