CAZENOVIA — This spring, 26 local groups are coming together to celebrate Cazenovia Earth Week 2022 (April 18-24) with more than 20 events exploring the practical actions people can take in their homes, neighborhoods, and communities to help save the planet.
This year’s events are presented by the following organizations: Scout Troop 18, Cazenovia College (seven different groups), Cazenovia Heritage, Cazenovia Garden Club, Cazenovia Lake Association, Cazenovia Preservation Foundation, Cazenovia Public Library (CPL), Cazenovia Rotary Club, Cazenovia Village Tree Commission, Greater Cazenovia Area Chamber of Commerce, Madison County Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Madison County Department of Solid Waste, New Woodstock Free Library, Project Café, Town of Cazenovia, Town of Nelson, United Climate Action Network (UCAN), Village of Cazenovia, CNY Chapter of Izaak Walton League of America, and USDA Forest Service.
“[Maintaining] a healthy environment and dealing with climate change is in the background of everybody’s everyday life,” said Earth Week organizer and UCAN Steering Committee member Geoffrey Navias. “Most of us pretty much know that there is a looming crisis out there, and yet it’s so hard to acknowledge [it]. Certainly no one wants to leave a damaged, sick world to our kids, [but it’s] hard to feel as if we can have much impact or do much about it.”
According to Navias, the groups participating in Earth Week are joining together to encourage each other, learn from each other, and hold each other to a higher standard.
“We know that we, and all the communities around the world, need to do an amazing job of cutting our carbon footprint,” he said. “With all of us working together, some people will take little steps, and some will take giant steps forward. Coming out of these last troubled years, there is a real desire to come together and work together on what is truly important.”
This year’s celebration is focused on three major themes — moving away from fossil fuels and towards electric, understanding and protecting Cazenovia’s freshwater resources, and applying creativity and ingenuity to finding better ways to reuse, recycle, and reinvent trash.
Earth Week will officially kick off on Monday, April 18, from 7 to 8 p.m., at Carpenter’s Barn with “Our Environment: Moving Forward,” a presentation and community conversation facilitated by Sherburne “Shere” Abbott, Jocelyn Gavitt, and Lauren Lines.
Abbott is the director of environment, sustainability and policy in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Prior to her current appointment, she was a senior advisor to President Barack Obama (confirmed by the US Senate on April 30, 2009, as the associate director for environment and energy in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President), serving as a deputy to the president’s science advisor. She has also served on the board of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority since 2014.
Gavitt is a landscape architect and planner who specializes in community engagement, planning, and design. She earned degrees from Cornell University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and she has extensive experience in master planning, site design, and recreational planning.
Lines is the executive director of the Cazenovia Area Community Development Association (CACDA), an independent non-profit organization representing a broad cross-section of stakeholders in the Greater Cazenovia Area. CACDA helps local organizations, governments, and residents accomplish their goals and objectives through consensus building, planning, cooperative efforts, networking, locating funding sources, grant writing, project implementation, and educational programs for the public.
“Shere will discuss climate-, energy- and sustainability-related aspirations and realities from a global to local perspective,” said Lines. “Jocelyn will talk about considering those goals when making planning decisions, [and] I will talk about what we have accomplished locally. Finally, there will be an opportunity for dialogue regarding what actions could be taken locally moving forward.”
Earth Week will also feature several new events, such as a “Trash to Treasure” up-cycling/repurposing competition, a promotional presentation on clean heating and cooling with heat pumps, and an expanded electric vehicle show as part of National Drive Electric Earth Day.
Community members are invited to put on their work gloves and join in the traditional clean-up events in the Village of Cazenovia, along Chittenango Creek, around the lake, and in the Town of Nelson.
Additional Earth Week events include hands-on science activities at CPL; an Arbor Day tree planting; an Earth Day celebration and display; presentations on composting, the Madison County recycling program, and reducing construction and demolition waste; a community poetry contest; volunteer water quality monitoring; a clothing drive; visits to the pollinator garden and the Cazenovia Water Treatment Plant; a documentary screening; and a guided nature walk to wrap up the week.
For more information on Cazenovia Earth Week and the full schedule of events, visit UnitedClimateAction.org.
