EARTH DAY 2005 RECYLCING FAIR

Earth Day 2005, April 22, was the perfect opportunity for Women of the Osa to launch our very first fundraising event in which we collaborated with RANA, (Rescatemos el Ambiente Natural Ahora) the environmental club of the Puerto Jimenez colegio, in an effort to promote and educate about recycling in the Osa Peninsula, and to raise money to build a new recycling collection center.
The midday festivities featured hours of live music provided by the town’s own Villalobos Brothers and Friends, the sale of fresh baked goodies, sodas and bottled water, and the introduction of our new WOO T-shirts commemorating Earth Day and also expressing the need for conservation, which were printed in both English and Spanish versions, and included styles and sizes for women, men, and children.  Both WOO and RANA passed out information about recycling and general introductions about each of our organizations.  RANA members put together a demonstration of recyclable materials collection and classification to teach the children of our community the importance and habits of recycling. They also organized a garbage collecting and classification contest for the elementary school and high school kids.  We gave prizes for the most glass, plastic, and aluminum collected, as well as the most trash collected in general. Prizes were donated by local restaurant, Il Giardino. A one-on-one soccer skills match and a salsa dance contest were also on the agenda.
WOO raised $792.48 (a combined total of T-shirt sales, baked good sales and cold drink sales) from this event!  All the profits from this event are slated to help build the recycling center for RANA at the local high school (colegio) in Puerto Jiménez.  WOO received much appreciated support from several businesses, but most notably from Bosque del Cabo (they donated the tent for the event, the use of some of the ice chests and ice for the cold drinks, and the staff to set up the tent), Lapa Rios (they donated the use of some of the ice chests and ice for the cold drinks), and Crocodile Bay (who also donated the use of some of the ice chests and ice for the cold drinks), and Iguana Lodge, (who donated the services of the band, ) and Il Giardino, (who donated pizzas as prizes).
The event was held on the basketball court in the center of town, and drew the attention of many curious locals and tourists who joined in the spirit of the celebration, dancing, buying T-shirts, brownies, cookies and soft drinks, and who learned something of our local on-going efforts to recycle and keep the Osa Peninsula clean and healthy.