A colossal celebration of life itself is unfolding across planet Earth and the Comox Valley is a big part of it all!

Since its inception in 1970, April 22nd has been observed annually as Earth Day by a steadily increasing number of people. It is estimated that as many as a half billion people now unite on this day to honor their common home, the Earth. This year, with enhanced Internet access on every continent, even greater numbers of people are converging as whole networks of citizens prepare to simultaneously celebrate being alive on planet Earth. Such a massive convergence of citizenry from every race and creed represents the dawn of a new era of humanity. A global civil society unprecedented in the history of the human race is emerging, here and now.

Earth Day, Sunday April 22, in Cumberland will be celebrated as part of this global initiative which also includes an Earth Day Fair to be held in Courtenay on Saturday April 21st. The fair is funded by World Community Development Education Society (WCDES) in conjunction with the Comox Valley Sustainability Centre and the Regional District of Comox/Strathcona. It is to be held at the Rotary Bowl (site of Musicfest) in conjunction with the seasonal opening of the Farmer's Market held at the same site. Many Cumberlanders will arrive at the event by bicycle through participation in a Critical Mass Ride initiated by Cumberlander Ross Hunt. The ride leaves Cumberland Village Square at 9 AM Saturday morning. Everyone welcome.

Sunday morning in Cumberland: Join us in honoring the village's very special relationship to the forest and wetlands through a Community Earth Walk beginning at 10 AM at Village Square. The Walk will proceed up historic Dunsmuir Ave. to the orchard at the end of Camp Road where it will enter upon a footpath leading to Chinatown Heritage Park. Various spokespeople representing local groups including the Chinatown ad hoc committee, Perseverance Creek Streamkeepers and the Cumberland Forest Society will share their knowledge with us. Earth Day participants will also be invited to share their own insights about the area and will then split off into smaller groups to explore more deeply what the wetlands have to offer. Everyone will be invited to reconvene by 11:15 for the return to Village Square via an interpretive walk led by Andrew Nicoll down the Mama Bear's Trail of Tears route in the Cumberland Forest.

From noon until 4 PM, Village Square will host a fun afternoon of celebration including a community picnic, information booths and engaging environmental activities led by local girl guides. A free musical concert by local performers Linda Safford, Judy Norbury, Scott Aitken and others will constitute a potent contribution to a rising tide of concerts world-wide set to culminate on Earth Day. Youth orchestras and other musical groups of all ages around the world, will be creating a global wave of music, beginning with concerts in the Marshall Islands (site of 1950’s nuclear test explosions), Australia/New Zealand, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and passing westward with the Sun across time zones through Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Europe/Africa, and North and South America, culminating in San Francisco, where the United Nations was founded.

Please come join us for this very special day. Let's make Earth Day in Cumberland a memorable event that we continue to celebrate for years to come!

For more information please call Dwayne Rourke at 336 2070.

For information about the global wave of music culminating on Earth Day, click HERE.

Watch the Earth Day section of The Cumberlander for updates on this emerging Earth Community phenomenon. Submit your own articles/links and photos too!