2nd Love Our Earth Day festival showcases local environmental efforts

LACONIA ― There’s a small group elevating the occasion of Earth Day with their second annual Love Our Earth Day Festival, a large vendor fair intended to educate and celebrate the Lakes Region. Martha “Muff” Kruse hopes eventgoers will leave better informed about the local environment.

After all, “there is no Planet B."

“I remember the very first Earth Day, in 1970. I was in Buffalo, New York, at the time. I was still a college student and, you know, here we are 56 years later, and there's still an Earth Day. And there's nothing here in the Lakes Region, one of the more beautiful areas that one could think of,” she said in an April 9 interview. “And what's happening? Why are we not celebrating that?”

So in 2025, she set out to form the Love Our Earth Day festival, taking place after Earth Day every year, to reinforce that protecting the environment should take place 24/7.

Kruse created the event after much contemplation, others eventually coming to her aid.

“If not me, who? And if not now, when?”

The free, outdoor community celebration takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Saturday, May 9, at the Congregational Church of Laconia, at 18 Veterans Square. In the event of rain, the festival will be moved into the Church Hall.

At least 18 vendors are signed up to take part, including the Laconia-Gilford Lions Club, Laconia High School Key Club, NH Lakes, and the WOW Trail. The event is sponsored by Climate Action NH, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the Laconia-Gilford Lions Club, Congregational Church of Laconia and Unitarian Universalist Society of Laconia.

“Come have fun and learn something new about your local ecosystem and supporting nature,” reads a post from the Alton Conservation Commission on Facebook page that accompanies the flyer.

There will be free snacks and drinks during the event, along with live music, and guests can expect family-friendly activities, youth-led groups, local and regional nonprofits, environmental education, hands-on demonstrations and community action opportunities. Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center will distribute a take-home scavenger hunt, and attendees can learn how to create a bird-friendly and insect-friendly garden with native plants, as well as grab a free well-water testing kit.

Kruse sees the festival as a day of camaraderie and fellowship, with many leaving feeling inspired and better informed, herself included.

“This is where I could put my climate grief, my climate despair and channel all that, you know, kind of negative energy into something more hopeful. I've discovered that this is something I can do.”

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Katlyn Proctor can be reached at katlyn@laconiadailysun.com or by calling 603-524-0150.