It is that time of the year to party for your planet — and, hopefully, learn something, too.  
The seventh annual Earth Day celebration in Liberty County will take place from 3:30-6:30 p.m. April 22 at the YMCA soccer fields at the corner of Mary Lou Drive and Tupelo Trail in Hinesville.
This year’s activities include free family fun, games, Earth Day art by local youth, music, unique container gardens and more. Whether you are a “young environmentalist” or a “wise and seasoned citizen” wanting to go green, there is something for you at this event.
Why do we celebrate Earth Day? A few years ago, we thought Earth Day would be a great time to increase public awareness locally about serious issues that our community faces, like stormwater pollution and litter. These issues have a detrimental impact on the quality of our local waterways. We wanted to educate our community about effective ways to make a difference every day.  
These are serious issues, but my theory is that kids — and adults, too — learn more and retain more by interacting. Making it fun doesn’t hurt, either. So the celebration in Liberty County was created to, as we like to say, cleverly disguise environmental education as fun.
This year we will have more fun and education than ever, thanks to community partners who help us provide the displays, games, crafts, prizes and entertainment to get messages across about litter prevention, water conservation, green energy, stormwater pollution, appreciating nature and recycling.  Volunteers of all ages help make this happen.  
Here are some highlights of the more than 60 activities at this year’s event:
• One of the newest displays is Earth Day T-shirt art, created by more than 90 artists in our local sixth-grade art classes.
• We will have a variety of displays and exhibits on energy and water conservation as well as a unique collection of container gardens that will encourage you to think outside the box — or should I say plastic planter — when you start your next garden project.
 • Fun activities, like “Journey through a Storm Drain” and “Creating Seed Bombs for ‘Guerilla Gardening’” and the always popular “Dead Fish Stencil Shirts” will be back.
• Our annual Sidewalk Chalk Art Contest starts at
4 p.m. We also have a unique photo opportunity with chalk art that I am sure will be popular.
• Music and entertainment will include local band 3rd Class Citizens and interactive musical fun, like our Earth Day rap, animal boogie (when the wild things come out to dance) and a parade for interested pseudo musicians that probably will generate a lot of joyful noise.  
• Recycling games, our Giant Earth Ball Toss, Toilet Trivia and the ever-popular Eco Jeopardy Game are just a few of the 20-plus games offering lots of fun as well as a chance to learn a little about taking care of our world.
Special thanks goes to our local partners who help to sponsor this annual environmental event: Georgia Power Company; the Liberty County Convention and Visitors Bureau; Coastal Electric Cooperative;  Canoochee Electric Cooperative; Liberty County Solid Waste; the cities of Hinesville, Allenhurst, Walthourville and Flemington; and Liberty and Long counties. We also will have several guests throughout the afternoon, including Bag Man, the Earth Day Frog, Louie the Light Bulb and Yertle the Turtle. They are eager to make friends with our local citizens.
So plan to join us and party for the planet!

Upcoming KLB activities
Municipal cleanups:
• April 20 — Hinesville
• April 27 — Walthourville, Flemington and Riceboro
To volunteer, call Keep Liberty Beautiful at 880-4888 or email klcb@coastalnow.net.