Despite rain, Earth Day bright in Mission
Daniel Martynowicz
Shannon Donahue teaches curious students Israel Umphrey and Bill Von Holtum about the Great Bear Foundation and bear safety during the Earth Day event.
Daniel Martynowicz
Jazmin Durffel gets a "Cat Woman" makeover during the Earth Day event.
Daniel Martynowicz
While the adults were busy being serious, St. Ignatius children took advantage of the rain and wet conditions with a game of tag.
Daniel Martynowicz
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ST. IGNATIUS — The planet Earth provides food, water and shelter for every living thing in the world, humans included. How fitting it is, then, that an entire day be set aside once every year to give thanks to and honor the amazing works of nature and work toward taking care of the planet as it has taken care of us.
Such was the case Saturday when St. Ignatius High School’s Students Serving Community group put on an Earth Day event at the Good Old Days park and amphitheater.
“One of our goals is to have a clean community and promote education throughout the community, so our objective today was to teach how to reuse and recycle,” said event planner Camaleith Old Coyote, a sophomore.
And, but for the weather, what an event it was.
Several local musicians played instruments varying from ukuleles to guitars, serenading children and parents alike as the youngest in attendance went from face-painting booths to arts-and-crafts tables to running through the rain in an impromptu game of tag.
“Even though it was raining, the games went really well,” Old Coyote said. “They really enjoyed it and they were alert and wanting to learn. It was nice. We kind of pulled it together last minute, but with such short notice it couldn’t have been better.”
For the adults, executive director of the Great Bear Foundation Shannon Donahue stopped by with a 50-year-old bear hide, track castings and educational material.
“I think it’s great whenever the kids come together and create something like this,” Donahue said of the student-run event. “I’m here to teach people how we can coexist with bears. We share habitat with grizzly and black bears around here. Successful conservation measures over the last 30 or 40 years have the grizzly bear populations recovering, and the bears are coming back to their historic habitat.”
Missoula residents recently saw their first grizzly bear visit in nearly half a century. A perfect metaphor for the Earth Day event, the bear in question was actually seen in the St. Ignatius area not long before visiting Missoula.
As both bear and humans expand in population and territory, conflicts are bound to happen.
“We’re proactively trying to teach people how to avoid conflicts with bears,” Donahue said, referencing the grizzly bear attack near SKC earlier in the week. “They’re just coming down from the dens, and she might have just come down the day of the attack. It’s a vulnerable time for bears ... they’re hungry and, especially females with cubs, they know that people have garbage and pet food and bears love chickens. There’s a lot of things to attract them, especially this time of year in residential areas.
“I’m hoping to just sort of remind everyone that we are in grizzly bear territory and we’re sharing our homes with them, and to be aware. Conflicts are easier to prevent than to remedy after the fact.”
In relative safety from grizzly bears and homework, children ran, laughed and smiled throughout the event, jogging from booth to booth painting rocks and getting their faces painted.
Jazmin Durffel, having just received a "Cat Woman" makeover, said her favorite part was getting up on stage to sing with the ukulele band.
“I like it when I’m going to sing,” she said. “I painted a rock and a butterfly, and the games ... those are my most favorite things.”
And so, despite the fact that Mother Nature chose to cry at her own party, those who call this planet home laughed, sang and were in high spirits during Mission’s Earth Day event under cloudy, rainy skies.
