Westfield To Kick Off 'Largest Earth Day Celebration Ever'

WESTFIELD, NJ — Westfield is planning what it calls its "Largest Earth Day celebration ever" this week, including events Thursday and Saturday.

Events will include a tree planting with Mayor Shelley Brindle Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Memorial Pool parking lot. (The event was originally scheduled for noon.)

Saturday will include a host of activities.

"The Town of Westfield will hold its largest Earth Day celebration ever," announced the Westfield Green Team, "including the third annual Free Market and Earth Day Fair, on Saturday, April 24 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Avenue train station lot. These events, coordinated by the Westfield Green Team, are part of the Town’s Earth Month celebration, the aim of which is to assist residents in adopting more sustainable practices and taking steps to address climate change."

The full list of rules for the market, and covid precautions, is here.

The train station lot is located at 300 South Ave. W.

“We hope to engage, educate, inform and entertain with all of our Earth Month activities,” said Ward 3 Councilman David Contract, who serves as the Council Liaison to the Green Team and helped plan the Free Market. “In particular, we hope the Earth Day Fair and Free Market shows residents specific ways they can live more sustainably like recycling unneeded household goods at the Free Market.”

The Earth Day Fair will feature more than a dozen exhibits and vendors showcasing ways residents can live more “green” — including through solar energy, EV Cars, home energy efficiency improvements, composting, rain barrels and so much more. Making their first appearance will also be Karma, Westfield’s first EV car dealer, who will have one of their sporty EV cars on display.

As in past years, the Free Market is like a giant yard sale except everything is free. Westfield residents can bring gently used household items such as clothing, housewares, sporting goods, books/movies, kitchenware, small furniture and more, leave them for others to take, and take anything that's left by others. Anything remaining at the end of the Free Market will be picked up by Green Drop for distribution to deserving families in the area.

Attendees may browse for goods at any time, although dropping off items requires advance registration for a time slot at https://bit.ly/FreeMarket2021.

For more information about the Westfield Green Team, visit www.westfieldnj.gov/green.

Social distancing and mask wearing are required at the event.

Additionally, writing instruments, glue sticks, watercolor dispensers, paint sets and flexible packaging can be recycled through this Friday at Edison Intermediate School and certain other Westfield public schools. There will be two collection boxes at Edison in front of the main doors facing Rahway — one for writing instruments and a second for crayons (please keep the labels on if possible).

To be the first to get free news alerts with breaking stories in Westfield or to get a free local newsletter each morning, sign up for Patch alerts and state your preferences.

Got news? Email caren.lissner@patch.com. Got photos? Please include express written permission from the photographer for us to use them. To be the first to get free news alerts with breaking stories in your town, or to get a free local newsletter each morning, sign up for Patch breaking news alerts or daily newsletters.