9th annual EcoHarvest set for Saturday

By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press 

Keeping the community green and clean is the theme of this weekend’s ninth annual Eco Harvest, held by Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful at the Copperas Cove Civic Center, located at 1206 W. Ave. B.

This year’s theme is “Rooting For Our Community” and features interactive, hands-on exhibits along with information to show how to live more environmentally friendly by recycling, composting, harvesting rainwater, and more.

EcoHarvest kicks off at 9 a.m. with a free pancake and sausage breakfast while supplies last, prepared by volunteers from the Copperas Cove Rotary Club. The festival runs until noon on Saturday.

Sustainability groups from throughout Central Texas will be on hand, as well as Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful volunteers sharing exhibits to include paper making, a recycling relay for the whole family, and making bracelets from recycled materials. 

Along with KCCB will be the Brazos River Authority, Central Texas Council of Governments, Mayborn Science Center, CenTex Sustainable Communities Partnership, H-E-B, Fort Hood Environmental, Recycling, and Spill Response, as well as Lake Stillhouse Clear Water.

One of the new booths this year will be run by Young Miss Five Hills Allyssa Kimball, age 14, who will run a crayon reuse-recycle booth, where kids will get the chance to bring home new crayons in fun shapes they make from old crayons, with Allyssa’s help. She will also collect used markers to recycle through Crayola’s ColorCycle program.

“Recycling is something that personally effects everyone in our community and is very important to keep our community clean. I love supporting recycling and collecting these crayons to use at my booth.”

There is free face painting from 9-11:30 a.m. and Zoomagination from San Antonio returns for educational presentations with a variety of animals at 9:30 and 10:45 a.m.