Several Lake County families participated in an Earth Day event in Round Lake on Saturday at the Prairie Grass Nature Museum.
The free hour-long Round Lake Area Park District program included crafts around the museum, and projects to help instill how to help the planet by conserving and recycling.
Kathy Paczynski, the Park District’s recreation supervisor, said the annual program “invites the community to learn about recycling and living lightly on the Earth, along with providing opportunities to help by cleaning up.”
Registrants could walk a nature path to remove invasive garlic mustard, while indoors, they could plant in small growing cups mammoth species sunflower seeds.
“We touch on other topics such as conserving water and energy along with other resources,” Paczynski said. “Each year’s program is similar but unique.
“I hope the public always learns something new, has some fun and takes home a new ‘green’ or Earth-friendly habit,” she added.
Attendees received a free reusable white cloth bag with items such as a new hand shovel. Those age 5 and up were offered a short introductory presentation by Round Lake High School seniors Jocelyn Cortes and Nat Cruz.
“I feel like it’s really important to help the younger generation to start learning a lot of stuff at a young age, so I just like helping out with the little kids,” Cruz said.
Cortes said, “I just like volunteering … not just for Earth Day. I just like feeling useful.”
“I just always like seeing the greenery, seeing native plants and I want other kids to see those same things I saw growing up,” she added.
Both said they are concerned about the excessive use of iPads and other types of screens.
“I feel like screen time has certainly been one of the highest spiking activities that kids do nowadays, and it’s kind of disappointing because I remember from my childhood at least, I would not be on my phone most of the time,” Cruz said. “I would be out with my friends.
“I would be outside looking at the flowers…just enjoying the fresh air,” she said.
“People’s attention spans are getting a lot worse,” Cortes said. “I feel like because of internet slang and stuff, these short-form videos, people are shortening so many words and not using proper grammar. They’re moving that internet typing into their actual school essays.
“Some people that I know have really bad handwriting to the point where it’s illegible,” she said.
Teddy Costlow, 9, was accompanied by his father Troy of Grayslake, who shared some of the same concerns about screen time.
“I want him to have fun with his friends and learn about nature,” Costlow said. “We keep him off screens and get him in the natural world. It’s a wonderful thing.”
At the event, children could make paper at an activity table and experience animals inside the museum, including Augie, a red-eared slider turtle, who swam to the surface briefly when visitors peered into the pool. There was also an ornate box turtle named Walter who might live to 40 years of age.
Kim Petrie of Grayslake said she hoped her son Colin, 9, would “just have a fun experience, to learn more about recycling and the Earth.”
Michelle Figueroa of Grayslake did crafts with her daughter, Lucy, 5, and said she hoped Lucy would glean from Earth Day, “The love of nature, of taking care of our planet.”
Lucy said what she likes most about Earth Day is, “that we grow trees and we clean up nature.”
