Children celebrate Earth Day at museum

Youngsters celebrated Earth Day at the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada on Saturday by making art projects out of recycled materials.

"I think recycling really helps the environment because if we keep on throwing away stuff that needs to be recycled it's not so good because we'll have to keep moving to new places and tearing down trees and stuff," said Aaron Brown, 10, of Woodland, Calif. He made a robot out of a Morton salt container and cardboard tubes.

"His name is Robo-Tron," he said.

Museum volunteer Frieda Ford handed out Love the Earth report cards and ID cards which read, "I pledge to do my part to preserve and protect the Earth."

The most popular activity was her recycled craft project. She brought supplies from the art room which had been collected over the years.

"The whole idea is to keep recycling and keep using what we already have," Ford said.

"I'm going to make something really cool," said Bradley Denney, 4.

"Me too," said 3-year-old Mitchell Krivan while squeezing white glue onto a fruit carton.

"I'm going to make a monster with a name like, A Skeleton."

Later the two boys both wanted to use the same supplies.

"You guys can share, you're good friends, you know how to share," said Bradley's mom, Felicia Denney.

"Let's share Mitch!" hollered Bradley.

Meanwhile Mitchell's sister Madison realized there was green ink on her hand from a Crayola pen. She stared at her palm in shock.

"Ow. Ow," she said.

"It's OK, we'll clean it up later," said her baby-sitter, Western Nevada Community College student Dwanna Lowder.

Madison is 1 year old.

"She's gonna be 2 in July," said her brother.

Earth Day, fist celebrated in 1970, is held each year around the spring equinox.

Other area events include "Northern Nevada's 2004 Earth Day Celebration: Be the Change You Wish to See" on Sunday, April 25 at Reno's Idlewild Park. The free event, held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will feature live music on a solar powered stage, a children's activity area, vegetarian food and about 80 booths.

The Children's Museum of Northern Nevada has special events planned throughout the year. Next up is the Cinqo de Mayo celebration on May 8.

"We're working with Nevada Hispanic Services and the Carson City Library," said Ford. "We'll have dancers and craft projects and we'll be making tortillas - it should be fun."

For details call the museum at 884-2226.

Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.