At this fair, there’s no candy

On January 24, 2009, View Royal had a Sustainability Fair, which wanted to encourage citizens to rethink their choices they make to live a more environmentally friendly way. What I like about how they planned this fair is they made the parking very limited so people had to think about how they would get there and how they choose the transportation. As Monique Booth, one of the volunteers of the fair suggested, “We are trying to encourage people to bus, bike or walk to the event.” Problem with this is it’s almost preaching to the choir, as most who do attend these sustainable idea events already have the mindset to live more sustainable. It’s a good idea, but not exactly effective as their audience already believes in the same thing they wish to address.

The fair was established last year, and was created to help resident’s access information on energy and conservation. They even made it family friendly, with face painting, puppet shows and more for the younger crowd. There are also door prizes focused on environmentally-friendly products. That I think is their best tactic, by teaching the youth and children about living sustainable now. Teaching future generations about living in a different way is far easier to do then trying to change older citizens who have grown accustomed to their way of life. I personally didn’t know about this fair until today, but would have liked to attend it just to see how effective it was, as the principle behind it is noble and it helps to encourage the community to participate in a more sustainable way. Hopefully this trend continues, and the community gets more involved with this type of action and people from all walks of like take part. Having people from different backgrounds can give different ideas and perspectives on their version of sustainable ideas, which in turn can potentially create a more uniformed vision.

Exert from: Dove, A. (2009, January 22). Green technologies, sustainable solutions on display in View Royal. Retrieved January 26, 2009, from http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/goldstreamgazette/news/38170089.html