Earth Day was first launched in the United States in 1970 as an environmental awareness event, and is now celebrated world-wide. By a happy coincidence, this year Earth Day fell on April 22nd, the day designated by Chester Garden Club for a spring clean-up of the two public gardens in our village. Answering the call for volunteers, about two dozen members showed up and contributed  their gardening skills in service to the environment in this one small corner of the globe.

The following gallery reflects the morning’s activities, which included spreading mulch, pruning and weeding at the beds in the Cove Garden and Parade Square, as well as socializing at a luncheon that followed, where all hands were offered delicious home-made squash soup and other treats. The photos were taken by Jocelyn and Joan. Unfortunately, Joan wasn’t able to maintain the chronological sequence of shots when creating the gallery  so, enjoy the images as a media melange.

Earth Day Canada is a national environmental charity founded in 1990, with the aim of fostering and celebrating environmental respect, action and behaviour change that lessens our impact on the earth.  Members of the Chester Garden Club joined over 1 billion people in over 170 countries by staging their clean-up on April 22nd.  Not all the club’s volunteers could be rounded up for the photo below but their work was much appreciated.