Earth Day Chalk-A-Thon!

It can still be called a Chalk-a-thon with only one participant, right? But it was TWO if you count my dog!

Today turned from a rainy morning into a beautiful day. Instead of planting seeds, I decided to get out the sidewalk chalk that my husband gave me as an Easter gift a year or two ago and put it to good use.

I've asked friends and family if there are any Earth Day events going on in their towns, and all I got back was a blank stare or the silent treatment on the phone.

Uh, turns out, even though this is the 39th year Earth Day is being celebrated, a lot of people have heard of Earth Day but still have no idea when it actually is: April 22.


Inspired by the kids' chalkings in a local neighborhood, I thought a good idea might be to do a bunch of sidewalk chalk drawings announcing Earth Day. I knew I could do them on Earth Day, but that might be useless if anyone who sees the drawings cares enough to want to do something. Then they'd see the drawing and go "Oh, TODAY was Earth Day? Well, that information might have been more useful TO ME
YESTERDAY!!!!!"
(Have you seen the Wedding Singer?... Anyway.)

Thus, I decided today, the day before Earth Day, would be the ideal time for my chalkings!

It was a lot of fun, and I did them in 3 separate places. I did the one above at about 11am near where I live, in the downtown area of the city, since a lot of people go out and walk by the river during their lunch breaks.

The next one, I did around 3:30 in a strategic location, where a lot of people walk after work. A lot of people park their cars in the area, or if it's nice out, it's just a nice walk. I hoped that the crowd who gets off between 4 and 6 would definitely see that one.

And my last one was done on the sidewalk along the river around 4:30pm, since in the evenings people are always walking their dogs or going for a jog or a bike ride down there. The good thing about that spot was that you can also see it really well from the path up above the river, so both crowds of people would get to see it.

You can click all of the photos to see them larger!


Anyway right now I'm about to cry because as I was finishing the last of the drawings, the sun was out, the weather was gorgeous, and I thought "There is no way it is going to rain tonight, even though the forecast said there was a possibility." But as I took a couple of pictures and gathered up my chalk, a cold wind and dark clouds came. Now I'm pretty sure my drawings only have a few minutes of life left, but it was a fun project and I'll be sure to chalk about Pollinator week this summer!