Conway Arbor Day 2010

 For a small festival, it went off pretty well. We weren't really prepared for the turnout. We were expecting about 400 and 700 or 800 showed. It was a little overwhelming but all of the 500 trees we had were adopted so quickly. The mayor handed out awards to a few local eco-enthusiasts, elementary school art contestants, and the City of Conway was recognized for its urban forestry initiatives. Many of the booths educated people about how to increase their local tree canopy, the different tree species that grow well in Arkansas, proper composting techniques, and caring for young trees.

It felt like I painted 1,000 kids faces. My booth was hoppin'. I still had a line at my table an hour after the festival had ended. Towards the end I knew I was in trouble because my hands were crazy-shaking and my horses were looking more like retarded ant-eaters. Seriously, I sat down, started painting on kids (and WAY too many adults) and looked up 3 hours later, having missed the whole thing, and it was time to go. I hear it was good time though!  Haha, and all I have to show for it is a cameo appearance made by part of my hand and a close-up of the messy bun-creature living on my head...which that other girl is clearly allergic to.... Hopefully they'll have enough sense to crop that mess, unlike myself, lol...in so many ways.

A few school choirs, some family string quartets, and many a Petit Jean hot dog later things were coming to a close. A tree was planted in Laurel Park in honor of this year's festival. I keep thinking about how many trees we distributed this year...I'm excited for them to grow and do their part improving our landscape and environment - social and physical.