The World Environment Day Festival will provide children with the chance to come face-to-face with marine and reptile creatures. Image: greghardwick.com.au
Sunshine Coast children will have the chance to come face-to-face with marine and reptile creatures, from snakes to sea urchins, during the World Environment Day Festival on June 28, 2009.
The Festival is a free day-out for families that features an interactive children’s and youth area, where environmental care will be more than just recycling newspapers and cans.
Ocean Life Education will showcase its popular, interactive marine animal display at the Festival to highlight issues such as conservation, global warming, pollution, whaling, coral bleaching and beach erosion. Ocean Life Education exhibitor Richard Coward, said he enjoys watching the children’s fascination with marine life.
“We will bring a fun, interactive learning experience to World Environment Day, with fascinating marine creatures such as sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and a couple of other surprise guest creatures,” Mr Coward said.
“Via hands on interactive learning, children will realise that all animals have a reason for being, a purpose in the environment…understanding brings about a greater sense of care,” he said.
Mr Coward said he hopes kids leave their display with a message that anyone can make a difference in protecting the marine environment by respecting the animals. Chancellor State College students will be giving their whole-hearted participation in
the children’s and youth displays at World Environment Day as one of many schools involved in the event.
The Chancellor State College Senior Campus will have a booth in the youth area, headed by Chancellor Park Environment Portfolio student, and environmental ambassador for the school, Rebel Lyons. High school students and beyond are encouraged to visit the youth area at the Festival. It is designed to create a fresh, exciting way of viewing and interacting with
the environment towards an exciting leap into a sustainable future.
Coordinator of the youth component of the World Environment Day Festival, Ben Everingham, said he wants to provide an area that will inspire people to act in a casual atmosphere.
“I want to create a place which is cool and intimate, and that people walk away feeling better for having been there.”
“The youth area will be a progressive component of the event, where people can listen to busker’s stage on bean bags, get ‘back to nature’ through a tribal drumming workshop, create art, have a coffee and a chill, participate in workshops aimed at
creating action and learning how to move towards sustainability,” Mr Everingham said.
Youth activist groups will also participate in the Festival, including Oxfam, Friends of Earth and the Australian Student Environmental Network, to echo the Festival’s theme based on the universal UN theme, your planet needs you – unite to
combat climate change.
Parents and children alike can enjoy the action-packed day which also includes short-films, Indigenous and Ecology workshops, market and craft stalls, guest speakers and live entertainment. The Sunshine Coast World Environment Day Festival will be held at the University of the Sunshine Coast on Sunday June 28th from 9am to 4pm.
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