Virginia Paving Environmental Manager Chris Monahan reads out the winning ticket for the prize at the annual Alexandria Earth Day Festival at Ben Brenman Park. With Monahan are Brendan Morris and Diego Ruiz. Photo by Louise Krafft.
Alexandria — Earth Day is a joint effort of the City of Alexandria Environmental Policy Commission, Department of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities and the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services. The annual festival opened up last month in Ben Brenman Park at 10 a.m. with greetings and a showcase of Alexandria City Public Schools students displaying and performing their ideas on upcycling in the performing arts, literature and fashion. A little after noon, the mayor and City Council members and the family of Ellen Pickering took the stage and together with the chair of the Environmental Policy Commission chair gave the Ellen Pickering Environmental Excellent Award to Susan Miranda and Kelley Organek of the UpCycle Creative Reuse Center.
Event sponsors included: Virginia Paving Company, COVANTA, Alexandria Renew Enterprises, Clark Construction, Alexandria Toyota Scion, American Disposal Services, Case Design, Deeper Missions, Fred, Harry Braswell Inc., Renewal by Andersen, Landmark Honda and A to Z Renovations. In-Kind Support came through with American Advertising Distributors of Northern Virginia, Bates Trucking Trash Removal and DASH.