What: Living Lightly Fair
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20th
Where: Minnestrista Cultural Center
Cost: Free and open to the public
Muncie’s annual sustainability fair will highlight community youth leaders who participate in environmentally-friendly practices.
“Indiana kids are doing amazing stuff, and I’d like to talk about what they are doing,” said Jim Poyser, keynote speaker for this year’s Living Lightly Fair. “The bulk of my stories and pictures will be on Indiana youth and citing projects they have going on and their efforts to reduce their [carbon] footprint.”
Barb Stedman, co-founder of the Living Lightly Fair, said it’s important to reach kids while they are young.
“Our key speaker this year is Jim Poyser and he targets youth because [he said it is] important to get their interest before losing it when they reach that age of thinking everything is lame,” Stedman said. “They are a key demographic for determining our future, and we have to engage them.”
Poyser, the executive director of Earth Charter Indiana, who works with youth at his organization, will discuss the practices youth around Indiana are taking part in at 10:30 a.m. in the Indiana Room at Minnetrista.
One school, in particular, has caught Poyser’s eye.
“There’s a school in Indianapolis. It’s called Paramount School of Excellence. It has quite a large garden ... an ambitious water catchment system ... and five wind turbines,” he said. “That’s the most actions I’ve seen at one school.”
The fair will also feature familiar exhibits and activities, such as the river of fish. The activity gives visitors the chance to create a clay fish and add it to the grassy knoll display in the parking lot.
Stedman described the goal of the fair, dating back to 2003, as a way to educate East Central Indiana residents on ways to live green and save money and resources.
Fifty-one green businesses and organizations from across Indiana plan to attend and host booths. A list of vendors and organizations can be found on the Living Lightly Fair’s website.
Elizabeth Rowray, consultant for Ava Anderson Non Toxic, will also speak at the event. She focuses on what families can do about changing conceptions about food.
Rowray is a fair veteran who spoke at the first fair seven years ago.
“This year I took a good hard look, as well as the past three years actually, at my family’s food intake,” Rowray said. “So I’ve really changed our value system on what we eat, and that’s what I want to help other people do.”
Rowray has tossed out processed foods and now looks closely at the chemicals and pesticides in foods she feeds her family. So far she’s learned that a number of chemicals banned in other countries are not banned in the U.S.’s food systems.
This year’s Living Lightly Fair will take place between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday and is free and open to the public.
Stedman said she is happy with the quality of the speakers this year.
“I think every year we have done a nice mix of different topics and trying to make sure speakers appeal to a lot different people,” Stedman said. “Not everyone is going to be interested in putting a solar power system into their home, but they might be interested in native planting or beekeeping.”
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