Tilcon's Annual Earth Day Event 2013 celebrated the meaning of Earth Day this year, specifically how it relates to the Native American Culture in New Jersey. Many of the animals and birds that were symbols of courage, honor and freedom in the American Indian culture are amongst some of the wildlife that live right here in New Jersey.
A team of Tilcon volunteers visited second and third graders at the CA Dwyer Elementary school in Wharton, NJ on April 23 for a special Earth Day "Pow Wow". The children were given handmade headdresses that Tilcon volunteers had made ahead and delivered to the school for them to wear and decorate in their classrooms before the event. As part of the arts and crafts portion they decorated their own Indian necklaces to compliment the headdresses. Each of the necklaces had a different Indian animal symbol.
There was also a slide show presented by Maritsa Barosi, Tilcon NJ Safety Training Coordinator, which explained the many different animal symbolisms and their meaning and beliefs in the Indian culture. The children had been studying Indian Culture in their classrooms so they were very excited to learn all about the animals and what they symbolized.
Gary Lawton, Tilcon NJ Environmental Coordinator, presented a slide show of some of the many animals that live in Morris County and all over the state of New Jersey. He also made coloring books of different raptors for the children to draw and take home with them.
Tenafly Nature Center brought in a Snow Owl and Red Tail Hawk for a special live demonstration and passed around some unique artifacts and explained some of their sounds and behavior.
For the finale, the children and volunteers all joined together to perform a real Indian rain dance. Ironically, when all the volunteers were done cleaning up after the event and everyone was leaving to go to their cars it actually started raining!