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The annual Berkeley Bay Festival entertained and educated residents from around the Bay Area on Saturday, offering boat rides, live music, environmental education workshops and even a solar cooker demonstration. 

This year’s event was organized by the city of Berkeley’s Marina Experience Program which provides education, recreation and entertainment throughout the year. 

The family-oriented event provided children and adults with a diverse array of hands-on activities like holding giant insects at the Insect Discovery Lab and racing across that bay in canoes and kayaks provided by Hui Wa’a Outrigger.  

“Today is about being alive and getting out on the bay,” said Patty Donald, naturalist and event coordinator for the Marina Experience Program. 

According to Donald, environmental education has been a theme for the festival in each of her 24 years as coordinator for the Program. The Program also made contacting local schools about the day’s educational activities a top priority. 

“We made a big push to the schools, that’s what this is all about,” said Donald. More than 50 organizations including the Cal Sailing Club, the Totally Outrageous Christian Brother’s Recycling Ministry and the Sierra Club participated in entertaining and informing the public. 

The California Coastal Commission provided information on coastal clean-up programs and provided pictures of marine life including sea otters, starfish, pelicans and sea gulls. 

“We’ve had a great response. There’s been a lot of interest in the artwork and the clean-up programs,” said Virginia Becker, public education coordinator for the Commission. 

The Commission provided a sign-up sheet for their September 21st coastal clean-up effort. 

Chilli Willy of the Totally Outrageous Christian Brother’s Recycling Ministry provided smiles for all designing animal and flower shaped balloons for children and adults alike.  

Director, ordained minister and piano player John Profit explained that the Recycling Ministry’s uses recycling, music and comedy to change people’s lives and entertain the public. According to Profit, the Ministry includes an outreach program to the homeless, providing mentor programs and teaching individuals how to repair and care for donated boats and yachts. 

“We take the church to them because a lot of the time they can’t come to us. We help to give them some hope and to turn some lives around,” says Profit. 

Chief Brooks of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office in San Francisco participated in the event by informing the public about the Guard’s Sea Partners Campaign, an outreach program designed to encourage environmental protection.  

“We have a saying that education is the solution to pollution. Most of the marine pollution comes from people on land,” said Chief Brooks. 

Alice La Pierre, an energy analyst at the city of Berkeley’s Energy Office, said she was participating in the day’s event because she loves the sun and because she wanted to spread the word about energy conservation. 

La Pierre not only preached the benefits of conservation but also demonstrated energy saving methods by baking a batch of brownies as part of a solar cooker demonstration and by measuring the energy saved using new compact fluorescent light bulbs. 

“The point of conservation is that you’re not only going to save money but you’re also going to save the environment,” said La Pierre. 

According to La Pierre, citizens should continue to conserve energy by changing their driving habits and installing compact fluorescent bulbs which last five to seven years and use only a quarter of the energy used by old bulbs. La Pierre says that the city of Berkeley recently changed all traffic lights to CFLs, saving the city $63,000 in energy per year. 

Linda Mounts of El Cerrito took a break from gathering tips from a compost information table while her kids enjoyed a painting workshop. 

“We’re in the process of landscaping our backyard. I’ve been collecting things from the compost booth. This is the type of thing we do anyway as a family,” said Mounts. 

Though less political than Earth Day, Berkeley’s Bay Festival has produced a heightened environmental awareness in the Bay Area during the month of April. Many hope such awareness lasts throughout the year. 

“There shouldn’t be a single Earth Day, there should be Earth Years. People need to understand that we are not apart from the earth but that we are a part of the earth. People don’t know how to interact with nature anymore,” said Donald.  

The Bay Festival has been an annual event in the Berkeley community since 1937. According to Donald, the festival was originally called the Festival of the Sea and included a parade from City Hall down University Avenue to the Marina. 

After venturing out to sea and attending the educational workshops of the day, many parents and children headed for either the climbing wall or adventure playground for a little recreation.  

“This is the crowning event of the day,” said Miran Lieberman, a Berkeley resident, as she watched her daughter scale to the top of the climbing wall.  

“Today has been great, lots of activities, the volunteers have been really helpful,” said Betsy Hanna of Berkeley.  

“We went on the Hornblower boat ride. It was a little choppy but fun. The variety of activities has been good, the combination of education and recreation,” said Hanna.