Dana Rappaport ’11
Web Managing Editor

The festival – which spanned a five and a half hour time period – included free food, exhibits, and music. Ben Meyers, the future co-president of Club Green for the 2010-11 school year, noted that EcoFest acts as “an easy medium for bonding over an environmental message.”

Club Green estimates anywhere from 1,000-1,600 people attended the event, Myers said, more than twice last year’s 500 attendees. Although a vast majority of the crowd was from Westport, people from other towns came to the eco-affair as well, including Fairfield and Newtown.

Vendors were lined up in booths that circled the Levitt’s green. Included were representatives from the Westport’s Farmers Market, the CT Agricultural Educational Foundation, the Westport Conservation Department, and the Sherwood Island Nature Center, there were 42 exhibits displayed throughout the day.

Crowds flocked to exhibits like the Recycling Relay, where there were two recycling bins adjacent to a pile of recyclable goods. Kids tried to beat the clock by darting back and forth from the pile to the bins in an attempt to recycle the most they could. Like many of the student-run exhibits, the Recycling Relay was an interactive and fun way for children to learn about environmentally friendly habits.

“I had a great time and I could tell that everyone who came to our booth did too” Danny Marriott ’11, one of the several students who ran the Recycling Relay, said.

Children echoed this sentiment. Tanya Dimyel, a Westport resident, brought her nephews ages eleven, seven, and 18 months, because she wanted them “to get more into the environment” and develop better “recycling habits.”

With her was Lucas, Dimyel’s seven-year-old nephew who was enthralled by the solar powered gadgets featured at the student-run table Solar for Staples. His face, decorated with black and orange stripes formatted in a tiger-like design, lit up with fascination when a fan slowed down as he placed his hand over its solar panel.

Remy Goldman ‘11 and Cal Rider ’11, on the other hand, ran an exhibit geared more towards educating adults. Their booth, entitled Green Cleaning Products, informed their onlookers of the toxins and pollutants in everyday cleaning products.

Through the course of the event Goldman and Rider concocted green cleaning solutions and awarded members of the community with a sample.

Ecofest is a joint effort by Staples’ Club Green and Westport’s Green Village Initiative (GVI).

GVI is co-founded by Dan Levinson, a Westport resident and father of Staples students Andie ‘10 and Adam ‘12. The young initiative, about 18 months old, strives to meet its goal in “making Westport a model sustainable community,” Levinson explained.

Club Green is a student run organization created in 2005. The group follows the motto, “Everyday Environmental Awareness.” This school year alone the group, made of about thirty students, simplified recycling system at school, installed an eight kilowatt solar panel, and saved the Wakeman Town Farm where the club’s advisor and Staples’ AP Environmental teacher, Michael Aitkenhead and his family, will be residing next year.

AJ Kieffer ’10, the current President of Club Green, further elaborated that this year’s EcoFest was “much greener” than last year’s.

“[This year] we wanted all local food, green vendors and displays, more people, and a better experience for the people of the community. I think we accomplished this goal,” Kieffer said.

“Last year was sort of our ‘test run’ and it was a great success but it wasn’t as green as we wanted. This year we had over twenty green vendors and displays. The club estimated that over one thousand people came through the event,” he said.

Kieffer and Myers were both thrilled with the large outcome but because this meant that more were becoming educated on the environment, not because of profit.

“EcoFest is free for everyone that comes to the event, but it is not free for Club Green [or GVI],” Kieffer said. Yet Myers noted that money that was made from t-shirts and mugs is recycled into next year’s EcoFest fund.

Kieffer continued to note how the success of EcoFest was due, in part, to the instrumental work of Aitkenhead.

“This year was a great success..[it] was bigger and better,” said Aitkenhead, adding that about twice as many people attended the event this year.

One exhibit that stood out, literally, was at the entrance of the event, was the Fuel Cell Project. The exhibit was run by three students of Darien High School’s Systems of Technology 2 class, Rahul Datta ’11, Ryan Diruin ’11, and Drew Hathaway ’10, along with their mentor and electric car advocate, Leo Sorino. The students featured their “Phase 5” (or fifth model) automobile, which is a fuel cell car that runs off of hydrogen.

Students from Staples’ AP Environmental classes were also a part of the extensive list of exhibits. The young environmentalists were split up in groups amongst their respective classes and created booths featuring interactive education about the environment.

“Today my favorite exhibit was Blu Print Automotive – Electric Car Conversions. I finally found someone on the East Coast who will install a plug-in for my hybrid – most of them are out West,” Joanna Greenfield, a former Westport resident and Staples alum, said.

Greenfield, whose book “The Lion’s Eye: Seeing in the Wild” won an honorable mention at San Francisco’s Green Book Festival, thought that EcoFest was “fantastic” and represented everything green she stood for.

Louis Pietig of Westport had a similar attitude to the event as Greenfield. “It’s great seeing people come out and learn how they can help the environment,” he said.

EcoFest was not strictly an educational outlet though; live music was one asset that drew a large crowd. The day’s line-up consisted of local bands, many featuring Staples students, such as Ellen Kempner ’12.

“I wanted to perform at EcoFest because I support everything it raises awareness for and I love the environment,” she said.

George Birch ’11 noted that the band that performed from 3:00 – 3:15 p.m., A Bad Time for Sarcasm, “was a good time,” and Rachael Shapiro ’12 thought that overall, “it was interesting to listen to different types of music from the area.”

The food was another component of EcoFest that drew plenty of attention from the crowd. The main attractions were the booth featuring organic pizza as well as Bobby Q’s booth featuring pulled-pork sandwiches made from locally grown pigs.

“The local meat feature was so cool because that’s part of a serious issue, the travel of food to supermarkets and such,” Myers said.

Almost one week after this year’s EcoFest, the students of Club Green have already started planning for next year’s festival. For example, Myers mentioned that he would like people to come as featured speakers during the concert.