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By ANDY VIANO

Daily Inter Lake

A bike rodeo, live raptors, Here to Make Friends, a climbing wall and a whole lot more — including a special guest appearance from Glacier National Park’s “bark ranger” — will come together to celebrate this very planet Saturday, April 22 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Whitefish Middle School.

It’s the third annual Flathead Earth Day celebration, put on by Citizens for a Better Flathead and Glacier National Park Lodges, a free, family-friendly festival filled with businesses, nonprofits and other groups all sharing ideas and activities aimed to protect the environment.

According to Allison Batch, Citizen’s program outreach coordinator, the idea was first hatched by the organization as “tailgating” before for an Earth Day concert at the O’Shaughnessy Center, until the Glacier National Park Lodges came on board.

And once they did, the day exploded quickly.

“We decided to go a lot bigger,” Batch said. “And make it a really fun, hands-on, educational event for the whole family.”

THE SPRAWLING event is populated mostly by booths, set up by a multitude of local organizations, and each has some sort of activity tied into one of four categories, as defined by Citizens: Grow It, Fix It, Save It and Live It.

“Grow it is, of course, local farms or nurseries, anything to do with growing plants or trees,” Batch said. “Fix it is anything to do with repair. We really like to encourage repairing instead of just throwing away and buying something new. So anything to do with re-purposed art or toys, and we also include maintaining or building trails in that.

“And save it has to do with energy,” she continued. “We’ll have some solar power demonstrations, or saving wildlife or public lands.

“And then live it is all encompassing. Any groups or clubs that practice conservation every day.”

Booths are offered to groups for $25, and Batch said that there’s often leeway given to those groups that are unable to contribute even that modest amount. The event is not a fundrasier for the nonprofit but rather a “friend-raiser” as Batch put it.

Plenty of partners are returning to the event to showcase themselves, but there were a few new booths coming this year that have organizers enthusiastic.

“We’re really excited about the bike rodeo that’s going to be going on,” she said.

The bike rodeo is presented by Connect Whitefish.

“I think it will be really fun,” Batch continued. “It’s basically just an obstacle course that they’ll have set up and kids can go through it on their bike and practice safety skills and different techniques, and they make it really fun.”

Glacier Cyclery, in Whitefish, will also be on hand, doing free safety checks and tire fills.

“It’s a good idea to bring your bike to the event; lots of fun bike stuff going on,” Batch said.

FOR VISITORS who are planning on bringing their bike to the event, they’ll be headed to a new site this year. After two years at Depot Park, organizers moved the event to Whitefish Middle School to give themselves a backup plan in case of bad weather.

If rain comes next Saturday, everything — the booths, the stage, the climbing wall and the mascots — will relocate inside the school.

If not, the festival will cover the large open area just south of the school, at the intersection of Second Street and Spokane Avenue. To the east of that space is the Earth Day Stage, with entertainment available there throughout the day. The band Here to Make Friends opens the show with live music from 11 a.m. to noon, followed by a wild bird show from the Wild Wings Recovery Center at 1 p.m. Gracie, the Glacier National Park “bark ranger” will put on a demonstration at 1:30, leading into the Climate Smart Champion Awards ceremony at 2 p.m.

Apart from the bike rodeo, signature activities include a chance to decorate a recycling bin, provided by Valley Recycling. Last year’s bin in currently in use at the the Flathead County Fairgrounds.

Attendees will also be able to recycle used electronics, including VCRs and tube televisions, climb a rock wall, or play on a bungee jumper, all free of charge. And, according to Batch, the festival isn’t just for kids.

“I think there’s going to be plenty there for older adults as well,” she said. “A lot of information sharing, demonstrations, things like that.

“Most of the activities are aimed toward kids but who doesn’t like to take home seeds?”

For more information, visit www.flatheadcitizens.org.

Entertainment editor Andy Viano can be reached at 406-758-4439 or aviano@dailyinterlake.com.