It's official...Banana Slugs String Band Day in Troy, Ohio...May 14, 2015

Mayor Beamish, in the red cap,  presented the official proclamation.  The slugs,  Doug Dirt, Marine Mark, Solar Steve and Airy Larry have been coming to the Miami County Parks for eighteen years to share their Environmentally based songs with children.

Thousands of children, wearing costumes they have made, have come to the Hug the Earth Festival every spring and performed with the band.

Gaia Gary joins the group on their Ohio trips. He has been coming for eighteen years also.  One year he did a remarkable job drumming with his broken arm in a sling.

Thanks, Banana Slugs and Gary.  It's been great fun these past eighteen years.  Hope to see you again next spring.

2014 Hug the Earth Festival with the The Banana Slug String Band and the Students of Miami County, Ohio

This is the sixteenth year that I have helped in some way with the Hug the Earth Festival.  It has grown from a one day event with about seven hundred students participating to a four day event with over three thousand students participating.  In addition, there is now a Saturday Festival open to the public.

Because Stillwater Prairie Reserve was waterlogged from the rains of the previous week, the students' festivals were held at the Miami County Fairgrounds.

There were limp antennae on the Banana Slug mascot who met the children as they began their day on Tuesday but by Thursday his antennae were stiff and perky.  He must have found some starch somewhere.

The band members from Santa Cruz, California, "Solar" Steve Van Zandt,

 "Marine" Mark Nolan,

 Doug "Dirt" Greenfield,

 and "Airy" Larry Graff

have been together  for nearly thirty years.  They entertain children and adults with songs about our wonderful earth and encourage everyone to care for it.  For quite a few years "Gaea" Gary has come with them to play drums.  I don't have a recent photo of him.

During the school year the students learn a special earth song, make costumes related to the song and come out to a Miami County Park for a day of exploring and learning more about their special earth song.  The festival is the culminating  event. This year, some of the students were superheros with superhero capes they decorated themselves.

Here is a superhero of Ohio's prairies.

Here is another Habitat Superhero.  Looks like the habitat is a river.  Beside him is the bucket with the rocks he dug out of the sand and gravel pile deposited in one of the Miami County Fair grounds open sided buildings.  All of the rocks in the pile are mined in Ohio.

The older students panned for their rocks.  The rocks they found were from many areas of the world.

In the trough are the pans the the students will use.  Standing around it, getting last minute instructions are the staff who will help them if they need it.  Notice that most of the staff are wearing slug antennae.

Here the students are comparing the rocks they found with samples enclosed in this box.

The Columbus, Ohio Zoo brought unusual animals like this two-toed sloth and talked to the younger students about the animals'  habits.

The older children were treated to a High Ropes Adventure which included a fast ride down a zipline.  There was also a climbing tower.  These were set up behind the stadium.  I took this before the event was completely set up.

On Saturday, tree climbing using ropes was also set up at Stillwater Reserve.

Rain, Sun, Sleet or Snow, the Hug the Earth Festival goes on and brings smiles to hundreds of people.

2013 Hug the Earth Festival with the Banana Slug String Band

The Banana Slug String Band from Santa Cruz, California was back in Miami County, Ohio last week for the sixteenth annual Hug the Earth Festival.  This is the second year that the five-day long celebration has been held at the Stillwater Prairie Reserve.  The Festival outgrew its old site, the Garby Big Woods Reserve.

Besides the hour-long concerts in which the students performed with the slugs, they enjoyed ...

Earthball activities...

Digging for special rocks like limestone and fossils and shark teeth...

Screening for gemstones...

Petting animals...

Learning about exotic animals...

Climbing trees...

And speeding through the air on Zip lines.

Hug the Earth Festival, 2012, Songs and Activities, Part 2

 
Here is Marine Mark leading children in dance to the tune of "I'm a Tree". "I'm a tree, I'm a tree, and I'm growing very tall".




Doug the Drop leads the Water Cycle Boogie Dancers. "The watercycle boogie goes round and round. The watercycle boogie goes up and down".




The Everything Needs a Home singers..."Everything needs a home, a habitat, a place to roam".






Airy Larry, The Plant Man, leading the Roots, Stems, Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds singers. "Roots, Stems, Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds, Six plant parts that every plant and animal needs".

There were lots of other activities besides the big concert.





Mike Manning, The Rock Man, showed these children fascinating rocks and talked about how people used them.


 

The children panned for treasure and found some of the rocks Mike talked about. Here is what one child found.





On the other side of the park, workers from Ohio mining put on a skit which emphasized that everything is mined or grown.





One child was dressed up as a miner.




These children mined for Ohio ores in especially prepared sand hills.





Then they took their pail of rocks to a table where they could compare what they found with named samples.




All of the children played with , a huge inflated "Earth" ball, and all ate a picnic lunch with their classmates.


  On Friday, the younger students were treated to a visit from the Kentucky Reptile Zoo. They saw a variety of reptiles.

 


The older students had a special treat, a Ropes Campus where they could climb a "Cliff", walk high above the ground on ropes and zip down a Zip Line. Tom pulled this photo from a video.





Here are students climbing the rock wall.
.

Miami County, Ohio Hug the Earth Festival with the Banana Slugs from Santa Cruz, California, 2012

This year, for the first time, the Hug the Earth Festival with the Banana Slugs was held at Stillwater Prairie Reserve. Stillwater has a larger area to stage the event which has grown every year for fifteen years.

The Banana Slugs are a group from Santa Curz, California.  They have been together for over twenty years.  I think the group is now approaching  thirty years together.  Their goal is to educate the world about the natural world and how to care for it.  Two of them, Doug and Larry, do shows the year around in California.  Steve and Mark run a nature camp for San Mateo County. 

One of the first Slug songs I learned before I had met the Slugs was this one.  They sing it but it makes a good chant, too.

           Sun, Soil, Water, and Air,
           Sun, Soil, Water, and Air.
  
           Everything we eat
           and everything we wear,
           Everything we eat
           and everything we wear,

           Everything comes from
           Every thing comes from

          Sun, Soil, Water, and Air,
          Sun, Soil, Water, and Air.

Appropriately, the "Earth Names" the Slugs have given themselves match the chant.

Doug "Dirt"

"Airy" Larry

"Solar" Steve

"Marine" Mark

When the Banana Slugs come to Ohio, they bring a drummer who is not a regular member of the band.

"Gaia" Gary

Tom and I spent Tuesday through Friday filming and taking photographs of the festival. It is always great fun and lasts all day.

All of the students from the Miami County schools who come take part in a song and dance with the Slugs and spend the rest of the day doing a variety of activities. Each day a thousand or more students and their teachers and some parents attend.  The program is coordinated with the school curriculum so it is offically approved  but the children look forward to it, like all children, because it is fun and they are not cooped up in the classroom for the day.

I'll write a couple more blogs about the festival. There is a lot to talk about.

Banana Slugs String Band... Hug the Earth Festival Wrap up...Part 2

The Banana Slug String Band from Santa Cruz, California performing on Saturday, May 21, at the Hug the Earth Festival at Garbry Big Woods.

Miz Dirt explaining to Doug Dirt that "Dirt Made My Lunch". No matter how many times the audience has heard the routine, the people still respond with shouts, laughter and then an enthusiastic rendition of one of the Slugs signature songs "Dirt Made My Lunch/ Thank you, Dirt/ Thanks a bunch/ For my salad...my sandwich...my milk...and my munch/ Thanks, Dirt/ You made my lunch."

The festival first day was May 17 at Garbry Big Woods. A brief rain was predicted but the brief rain turned into a cold, hard, all day rain on the coldest May 17 since 1932. The following day was an all day event at one of the local school systems, the third and fourth days were held at the Miami County Fairgrounds because of rain. The fifth day, Saturday, was back at Garbry Big Woods on a beautiful sunny, warm day. Saturday was open to the public. The earlier days were education staff days with the local school students, about a thousand each day.

Each day during the week, a staff member from the Kentucky Reptile Zoo talked to the students about retiles of various types. Here, she is showing the students a Timber Rattlesnake.

On Saturday, staff from the Columbus, Ohio Zoo brought animals and talked to the students about them.

Dr. Insecta talked about insects and their relatives on Saturday, also.

The Saturday events schedule and locations of the events were on signs displayed throughout the park.

The following photos are of a few of the activities available for young and old. Since I was also taking videos for Tom to splice into a one hour video for viewing on the local public access channels, I didn't take many stills.

One activity in the Invertebrate Village

Pet Rock Painting

                                Making paper rockets
                            

Preparing to blast off

Preparing to launch into the pond

This boy has had a hat made by Twinkie the Clown and also had his face painted at the face painting site. He is watching Twinkie start a balloon creation for his big sister.

This little girl is on top of the world. A staff member behind her is holding her securely by the ankles. During the week, this Earth Ball was used for a variety of teaching activities.

A slice of pizza cost two dollars. Everything else was free...just the right price for an inexpensive afternoon of fun for all.