When visitors to the 2017 Going Green Matters fair walk in the door of Wilmette’s Michigan Shores Club on March 12, one of the first things greeting them will be a 20-foot-tall inflatable globe, inviting them to view Earth from the inside out and learn about its needs from a completely different angle, fair organizers said this week.
The GeoSphere, brought to Going Green Wilmette’s annual environmental showcase by the Geographic Society of Chicago, is a striking representation of this year’s theme, “One People, One Planet,” said Beth Drucker, president of Go Green Wilmette, the environmental advocacy group that holds the fair. The globe, which the Society offers to schools as a walk-in educational tool, will also illustrate the rest of the theme, “We’re all in this together,” she said.
“When it inflated, all of our jaws just dropped. No one’s going to forget it,” Drucker said. “We’re very conscious that local issues are planetary issues. And this is a way to incorporate a global perspective in an event that is local.”
The 2017 fair is co-sponsored by the village of Wilmette and takes place between noon and 4 p.m. at the club, 911 Michigan Ave. in Wilmette, and at the nearby Gillson Park beach parking lot, according to the fair website.
It features more than 100 exhibits, from the GeoSphere to displays of electric and hybrid cars, an environmentally themed activities area for children and families, programming on how to become involved in green issues, and a special art exhibit, “Environmental Graphiti,” by Chicago-based artist Alisa Singer, according to Go Green Wilmette vice president Margaret Martin-Heaton.
Singer, a former corporate attorney, combines her art and her concern about climate change by incorporating graphs and charts into the art, Martin-Heaton said.
“It’s an extraordinary exhibit of climate change information, shown in a way people have never seen before,” Drucker said.
Both the GeoSphere and “Environmental Graphiti” are new exhibits this year, Martin-Heaton said. She and Drucker said bringing in unique exhibits each year helps draw new visitors and reignite the excitement of returning visitors.
“We are always looking for new elements for the fair,” Martin-Heaton said. “We’re very lucky to have a lot of vendors and exhibitors that want to come back, and in fact, our problem is we have to say ‘no’ to some organizations so that we can bring new groups in.”
Annually, more than 1,000 volunteers, exhibitors, public officials and visitors become part of the fair, Drucker said.
According to the fair’s website, visitors can learn about issues like growing one’s own food, creating more sustainable homes, and green transportation choices, among others. They can also hear programming on how local entities like schools, libraries and villages are helping to make communities for sustainable places to live, according to the website.
As it has in the past, Going Green Matters will also include recycling collection of household batteries and bicycles, Drucker said. Because of the increasingly high cost of handling and recycling electronic goods, the fair won’t offer that service this year, she said.
For more information on Going Green Matters, visit www.goinggreenmatters.org