Publisher’s note — Due to potentially bad weather, city officials have Earth Day to April 25.
By Louis Zylka
The 830 Times
The city of Del Rio will kick off Earth Day celebrations with a creek clean-up event and educational activities on Saturday, April 11, around the San Felipe Creek area.
The day will begin with a clean-up and tree-and-flower planting event from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., and will continue until noon at Lt. Thomas Romanelli Memorial Park, 301 Stanley St., with family activities. Esme Esparza Meza, community services director, spoke with The 830 Times and gave more information about the activities happening Saturday. Meza said the event will kick off sustainability month activities throughout April.
With Earth Day falling on Wednesday, April 22, Meza said city staff planned the Saturday event to allow more community participation.
“(The activities) are educational and people can take away or learn something new as a result in participating in the events and help reduce a carbon footprint by participating in the clean-up efforts,” Meza said.
The creek clean-up is part of the Keep Texas Beautiful partnership with Del Rio, and Meza said city staff will collaborate with Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages to host the event.
She said those interested in volunteering can meet at the Dr. Alfredo Gutierrez Jr. Amphitheater, 105 W. De La Rosa St., where litter bags and gloves — including yellow bags provided by Texas Leadership Del Rio — will be available. Volunteers will clean areas and plant trees and flowers in Romanelli Park and the Skate Garden, 708 W. De La Rosa St.
Meza added that a Texas Litter Database report will be submitted to Keep Texas Beautiful to document clean-up efforts across the state.
The city’s annual Earth Day activities will take place at Romanelli Memorial Park from 9 a.m. to noon. Live music will be provided, Big Air Trampoline & Adventure Park will have inflatable games, and Sharky’s will be on site selling snow cones.
Activities will include an art station with rock painting and canvas painting focused on Earth Day themes.
A planting area will also be available where city staff will provide free pots with pollinator seeds for participants to take home.
Peter Ojeda, communications and marketing director, said the planting area allows residents to create and expand gardens at home and encourages long-term engagement.
He said the Saturday events help establish early habits for children to become future stewards who can give back to the community.
“A lot of the clean-up efforts and all these different activities are modified by Esme (Meza), and so all these activities are supplied in a presentation, and that is how we get a lot of the grant funding and continue these kinds of beautification efforts,” Ojeda said.
