Looking for something to do with the kids during Spring Break? If so, grab your gumboots and splash on down to the Earthwise Garden on Saturday, March 18 for the Earthwise Society’s third annual Rain Day.
The free, family-friendly event celebrates our often unwelcome but always precious natural resource — rain — with a range of activities designed to get everyone’s boots wet.
Fun meets learning on Rain Day, with entertainment featuring the Ta Daa Lady’s Rain Show. Kids and adults will have a chance to show off their fanciest or silliest rain gear, umbrellas and gumboots in an exuberant Rain Day Parade through the garden.
The event includes a Rain Day Music Corner where kids can hone their musical abilities and dance off their energy in an interactive dance in the Earthwise Garden’s rustic swallow barn. Kids and adults can also create their own rain sticks and use them for special sound effects during the puddle stomping parade.
Lots of other creative Rain Day crafts will be on offer to get everyone thinking good thoughts about all this rain.
Adults can take a look at Earthwise Society’s three rain gardens on site that demonstrate some of the creative and beautiful ways that home landscapes can help conserve water. Earthwise horticulturists will be on hand to answer questions about incorporating rain gardens into home landscapes.
The event will showcase entries to the Earthwise Rain Sculpture contest. Visitors can wander through the garden, vote for their favourite sculpture and then finish their artistic explorations with a water-themed photography display from local artists.
“Rain is such an integral part of our coastal temperate rainforest home, but we rarely give it the appreciation it deserves,” says Cait Murphy, communications coordinator at Earthwise Society. “Our Rain Day celebration wants to get people thinking about how we can all conserve water.”
Rain or shine, Rain Day will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Earthwise Garden, 6400-3rd Ave. in Boundary Bay.
To raise awareness of the event, Earthwise is hosting an Instagram contest under the hashtag #Fall4theRain. Post a picture of people having fun in the rain and tag @earthwisesociety and #Fall4theRain for a chance to win Camino chocolates.
For the full Rain Day schedule, check out www.earthwisesociety.bc.ca or Earthwise’s Rain Day event page on Facebook.
Those interested in participating in the Rain Sculpture contest or who would like to volunteer can contact Corinne at [email protected] or at 604-946-9828.
