Hundreds celebrate Earth Day at Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples

They crawled. They painted. They built. They dug. They learned.

All in the name of protecting Mother Earth.

Hundreds of children, parents, grandparents and other curious souls flocked to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s nature center Saturday to celebrate Earth Day.

The annual festival is the nonprofit’s biggest community event of the year and offers patrons reduced admission to enjoy a day filled with Earth-related activities, said Catherine Bergerson, director of communications for the Conservancy.

“The more we can get our community connected to nature, if they can find something that sparks that love and that interest in the land, water and wildlife, the more willing people are to protect it,” she said. “And so that’s really our goal for today.”

Though Earth Day is a nationally celebrated event that traces its roots back to the early days of the modern U.S. environmental movement in the early 1970s, Bergerson said its message is critically important to Southwest Florida to this day.

“People come to Southwest Florida and Naples, because of the natural beauty and the environment, from the beaches to the great air to the beautiful wildlife and the wading birds that we can see,” she said. “And if we take those things for granted and don’t protect them, the very reason that we all came here and love it potentially is at risk.”

But while the cause was serious Saturday, the day was playful.

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Children wore necklaces with plastic fishes that volunteers helped fill with colorful sand. Young and old built green “alligator hats” out of paper and tape, and made wristbands out of beads. Children rifled through boxes of Legos to build sanctuaries for some of their favorite animals.

They marveled at spiky lionfish and sleeping baby screech owls. They learned about birds of prey and took pictures with Gordon B. Eagle, the nonprofit’s mascot.

Madison Jones, 5, had eyes for only one thing when she found the station with buried fossils. And so she hammered away at the sand and plaster block in the tin tray. She even got to keep the fossil she “discovered.”

“It’s been a hit,” said Kevin Sandel, a naturalist with the Conservancy who manned the fossil station and hid the million-year-old shells and corals in the sandy blocks. “Kids love it.”

While Madison dug up her treasurel, her father, Evan Jones, took pictures of his little paleontologist.

Jones, a Naples native, said he remembers coming to the Conservancy as a kid for sleepover camps.

“And we thought that this was the best way to experience the Conservancy,” said Jones, 39. “I’m just amazed. I think we’re so lucky to live in a community that puts on an event like this. We’re just so blessed to have this for kids.”

Not far from the fossil excavations was the sea turtle challenge.

Tucked away in one of the center's classrooms, volunteers set up an obstacle course that mimicked the reptiles' treacherous journey from the ocean to the beach to deposit their eggs.

First the “sea turtles,” wearing a shell-themed backpack, had to crawl through a spiral draped with fishing nets. Then they had to roll dice to see if they would find food, have to eat trash or get eaten by a shark. Only if they were able to score food were they allowed to continue through a little tunnel representing the ocean currents, crawl past some beach chairs and finally deposit their eggs.

But what represents a dangerous life-or-death trip for the turtles was a fan favorite among little attendees Saturday.

“Kids love doing it over and over again,” said volunteer Natalie Girardi.

Haydee Staebell’s daughter June, 2, was one of the many eager sea turtles to take on the challenge. The daylong event’s underlying message was a vital one to teach her children, said Staebell, 28.

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“Bringing awareness to the environment I think is so important,” she said. “Not just on Earth Day, but any day.”

For Bob Helpin and his grandson Vincent Engle, it was their day.

“This was the boy’s day, no girls,” Helpin said. “Nana and mommy are home.”

And it was a success.

Vincent said he liked everything, but especially the boat ride. He already had his next visit mapped out.

“Next time I come I think I’ll be doing the canoeing,” he said.

Attending the event also allowed Helpin teach his grandson about the importance of taking care of the environment.

“That’s part of what our concerns are,” Helpin said. “Is there going to be an environment for this next generation or the second generation?”