Middletown >> Standing on the edge of Middletown’s main stretch of road, Sam Flot extended a little potted plum tree to a car waiting for the red stoplight to turn green. He asked if they wanted a free tree, and when the car’s occupants declined, he asked the next car, then the next.
Some ten feet away, Heather Merriam smiled softly while brandishing a sign that read, “a moment of science please.”
A steady stream of vehicles rolled by. Some accepted a tree from Flot’s, and some honked in solidarity with Merriam.
It was downtown Middletown’s very first Earth Day festival, an afternoon of live acoustic music, face painting, candle making and free plants, which took place on Saturday at the Middletown Art Center (MAC) and the home goods store, Forever Green.
The event was a collaboration between a number of people and businesses — MAC, the Middletown Area Merchants Association (MAMA), Forever Green, Harbin Hot Springs. The Lake County International Charter School out of Middletown set up a booth, and two teachers came equipped with a guitar and bongo drum.
But at the helm of it all was Jocelyn Hoey, a member of MAMA and a Harbin Hot Springs representative. In the past, CalPine was the one to host an Earth Day event for the South Lake County community, but lately they’ve been focusing on other things, and it had been a couple of years since there was an Earth Day celebration.
Hoey was determined to do something to fix that, so she approached the other members of MAMA about putting on their own festival in the downtown area. Everyone agreed to the idea, with enthusiasm.
“I think it’s really important for all of us to feel connected to the earth,” said MAMA member Beth Rudiger. “We need to protect what we have for future generations, so it’s important for us to take a day out of the year to remember all of that and to honor that.”
The merchant’s association is also committed to bringing more people into the downtown area. A festival only served to highlight the area and draw in more visitors.
“Middletown has a lot to offer,” Hoey said.
As a self-admitted shy person, organizing the festival was more difficult than Hoey had anticipated. She made phone calls and directly approached local residents she had never before met or spoken to. But in the end, the effort was well worth it, and Hoey made some new connections in the community.
But Hoey insists that the event was very much a group effort. All she had to do was spread the word that it was happening, and people stepped up. “That expression, grassroots, to me that was exactly what this was,” she said.
The festival wasn’t exceedingly crowded, but that didn’t deter anyone. If anything, it left the organizers feeling optimistic. Hoey confessed that she had been expecting a small crowd of friends and acquaintances, and that was about it. She called Saturday a “practice run” for next year.
“I think we know what worked and what we could do better and I think we could make it into something bigger,” said Hoey.
And she isn’t the only one looking toward the future. “I think this is the beginning of a tradition,” said Rudiger. “Things like this, community events, people see it happening and they say how can I be a part and it just gets bigger.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
