A celebration within The Celebration!

Okay, here's one I bet most of you don't know: April 24th isn't just the date of the first day of The Hudson Valley 40th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration (and the rest of your life...); it's also World Tai Chi and Qigong Day. And we're going to celebrate this day at our Earth Day(s) Celebration with sample classes in both, for anyone of any age to try.

But before I tell you more about when, etc. and who's teaching these classes......For those of you who may not know about these two gorgeous and rewarding arts...(depending on whose definition you choose) Tai Chi (also spelled T'ai Chi, and pronounced "Tie Chee") is variously described as a martial art, a "soft" martial art, a Chinese form of exercise, and a way to both meditate and exercise.

The definition I like the most for this beautiful, flowing, slow discipline is "a spiritual and physical discipline, developed in China over millennia to bring balance to the body and flowing peace to the mind" (thank you, www.tantricjoy.com...). Tai Chi facilitates the flow of your body's life force, and promotes good health and vitality. Qigong (pronounced "chee-GONG") is a Taoist discipline -- again, going back thousands of years -- that teaches you how to use breath and posture to gather energy from the universe.

Who will teach you? Well, it won't be me! (I'm hoping to have the time to take the classes in between running around the Fairgrounds making sure that y'all are having a great time!)

David Haines -- who graciously has offered to show you and guide you through an introductory session -- teaches both Qigong and Tai Chi (and something he calls The 20-Minute Body/Mind Routine-TaiChi & Qigong for Busy People) all over the Eastern part of the US, but principally in the Hudson Valley, including at Bard College at Simon's Rock, and community education facilities in Taconic Hills, Red Hook, at Columbia-Greene Community College and at the Omega Institute.

Our World Tai Chi and Qigong intro classes will be offered at noon and at 2 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday (4/24-25). Wear comfy clothing. And no, you won't have to lie down on the hard floor...you'll be standing and moving, and loving it!

Oh but wait! That's not the only great-for-your-body-and-your-mind classes we're offering up during the Earth Day Celebration. Did I hear you think, "Gee I hope they have yoga, too..."? Well as a matter of fact...

Vinyasa yoga instructor, Ron Hayes, RYT, is going to be with us on Sunday, April 25th, giving a 1.5-hour class for you to take. Vinyasa links movement with breath, and even those who don't practice yoga, are not physically strong or particularly flexible can take the class. That is, this isn't one of those classes where the instructor forces you into painful positions or urges you to push yourself beyond where you feel you can't go. The key here will be for those of you who get competitive when other people are doing more than you can do, is to NOT compete.

There are two prerequisites for this class (just so you know...). You need to bring a yoga mat with you (this is, after all, the Fairgrounds, not a yoga studio and our floors are concrete). And, you will have to sign a waiver form, holding both Ron and the Fairgrounds harmless if you push yourself too far and get hurt. The waiver goes for Tai Chi and Qigong, too, btw...

I know, it's only one yoga class. SO FAR. Check back here for more classes, with different instructors -- we're working on it...working on it...

The uniqueness of zero (landfill, that is...)

By now you know that the Dutchess County Fairgrounds' Hudson Valley 40th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration is going to be a very special event.

It is also going to be unique (in lots of ways, but this one in particular...). It's going to be a Zero Landfill Event. Yes. Courtesy of our sponsors, Covanta Hudson Valley Renewable Energy and Royal Carting Service Company, and with the help of the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency, the Earth Day Celebration will be a Zero Landfill Event.

That's right. Zero Landfill.

What does that mean? Simple. No solid waste generated during the Hudson Valley 40th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration will be put into a landfill. Period.

We will recycle whatever we can, and the items that cannot be recycled or composted will be turned into electricity at the Poughkeepsie waste-to-energy plant.

Now, let's get something straight: This is not some smoke-belching, old-school incinerator. The waste-to-energy plant is a clean burning facility, whose air emission tests meet or exceed the strictest federal standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Absolutely true. See the information for yourself at Covanta's booth in the Hall of Green Energy at the Earth Day Celebration.)

What is waste-to-energy exactly? It's a process that takes solid WASTE -- generated by towns just like yours and mine, your own household trash, or solid waste from venues like the Dutchess County Fairgrounds -- and instead of putting it into the landfill, transfers it TO combustion chambers where it is burned and reduced to 10% of its original volume. The heat created by burning the solid waste heats up water in steel tubes that form the walls of the combustion chambers. The water turns into steam, which in turn is put through a turbine that continuously generates ENERGY in the form of electricity. The electricity goes back into the power grid to light and heat homes and businesses. There you are: WASTE-TO-ENERGY.

And that's what's going to happen to ALL the solid waste you and I and the activities you'll participate in at the Celebration generate that is left over after we're done recycling all the bottles and cans, cardboard, metal, oil and food scraps. It's going to be turned into power. Just think: After you spend your day at the Earth Day Celebration, go home and turn on the lights, a teensy, weensy bit of the electricity powering your lamps just might be coming from something you threw away at the Fairgrounds!

Talk about lowering your carbon footprint! Oh, and we'll also be piloting food waste composting at the Earth Day Celebration-- again, courtesy of Royal Carting, which will be supplying special bins just for that purpose.

And, you can practice the three R's by bringing your electronic waste with you when you come to the Celebration. We'll be holding another major e-waste take-back weekend (our third!) with Advanced Recovery, Inc. during the same hours as the Earth Day Celebration, as well as document disposal (secure shredding). We hope we'll be able to provide compact fluorescent recycling for your burned out CFLs, and for mercury-containing items such as old thermometers, and other items. So stay tuned for confirmation on that. But the E-waste turn-in and document shredding? That's a done deal.

As Seen on (Big Green) TV

Kids and their parents are going to love this...

Big Green TV is coming to the Hudson Valley 40th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration! I met today with Stephen Blauweiss, the Executive Producer/Director of this great environmental news site geared for kids age 8 to 13. He, and his BGTV crew, including little BG (he's the TV here with the smile) and Amy Loewenhaar, BGTV's news anchor (she's a killer bee!) will be in the kids' building doing shows, interacting with BG and children who stop by, and flitting around from event to event, filming for their next shows!

We are SO lucky to get BGTV to come and live at the Earth Day Celebration for the entire weekend! This is an awesome new(s) show, and you just won't bee-lieve what your kids will learn while they play.

Bee there or bee square (couldn't help that...sorry)!

These are the days -- the Earth Days, that is...

Wow! Earth Days, the Robert Stone film about the birth of the environmental movement, and Earth Day, is coming to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds' Hudson Valley 40th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration! This is huge! The film, which has shown at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck, and across the country, will be aired nationally on PBS April 19th and 22nd. And then, at the Earth Day Celebration on April 24th and 25th, it will be screened by Robert Stone himself.

I spoke to Robert today -- the producer/director of Earth Days, who lives right here -- and he offered to screen this incredible movie, for free, on both days of our Earth Day Celebration, and talk about it to the audience. Anyone who wants to can come and watch, then hear him talk about his film.

Now all we have to do is work out the logistics and times (stay tuned...), and it's a go.

If this isn't going to be a don't-miss-it event, I don't know what is!