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Earth Day Dallas Soars

Earth Day Dallas Soars

I had the privilege of being point man for the great team that created Earth Day Dallas, a two-day educational celebration which drew tens of thousands of visitors to the Texas State Fair grounds. There were about 600 exhibitors with booths, and they came from five different worlds: for-profit businesses, environmental groups, other non-profits, education, and government agencies. Exhibitors covered the expenses of our large event, and admission was free to the public. We had 110 booths run by schools, probably a first for a green conference; I think we had every college in north Texas represented in a booth.

Both days were successful and had great weather. I talked with many exhibitors and each was satisfied with his results; over 90% of the 2011 Earth Day booth holders returned for 2012, and exhibitors’ comments indicate that next year will be as good. The families who wandered the fairground’s many acres explored various environmental displays, were entertained by musicians, informed by speakers (including Laura Bush and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson), and had choices among many concessions selling food and drink. Dallas is a car town, and attendees could examine 42 different state-of-the-art green vehicles, mainly passenger cars, all commercially available. Several other booths had useful handouts praising trees as contributors to landscape beauty, to soil and water conservation, and to better air.

Texas Business for Clean Air, an organization Texas business leaders put together to block construction of 18 new coal power plants, was a model for our getting businesses involved as exhibitors. We created opportunities for many small specialty businesses, like “Texas Worm Ranch” whose name I love, to show their products alongside those of large corporations. Government agencies and environmental non-profits broadcast their achievements and asked for support. One political booth gave away Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan bookmarks featuring each President’s words about conserving our natural heritage.

The weekend was a joy, and I got to take my wonderful mother around the grounds. We’ll do it even better in 2013.

Image by Drumguy8800 at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

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