Den Haag in Transitie | Author Kristin Anderson

My regular readers may know by now that a week from today, on Tuesday April 22nd, 2014, The Hague will be having an Earth Day Celebration. One of the featured organizations is DHiT – The Hague in Transition. The name already speaks volumes; it tells you where this organization is located and the nature of their vision: transition. But what does transition mean in this case?

Featured organization at The Hague’s 2014 Earth Day Celebration

I spoke with DHiT member Sebastiaan van Zaanen, who will be representing his group at the event, to provide me with a summary of his organization in 25 words or less. Here is what he came up with:

The Hague in Transition facilitates the coming together of the local community in The Hague to take steps towards a vision of a green, creative and self-sustaining city. In order to achieve this we challenge and transform the current societal paradigms of how we live and work together.

A few weeks ago, I attended a Saturday event at DHiT. I talked with an organic chef, listened to a presentation on a community garden project that vested residents in local, sustainable agriculture, participated in a guided meditation and caught the end of a presentation on green roofs. All this in just one afternoon! This active organization offers a lot to the community and is growing.

Want to learn more about DhiT in The Hague? You can check them out online here, or you can meet members in person this coming Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014 between 17:00-20:00, at the The Hague Earth Day celebration, ABC Treehut, Lange Poten 23, The Hague.

*Although this event is geared toward an English speaking audience, all of the organization’s representatives are either native Dutch or have a working level of Dutch under their belts.

Hope to see you there! Please share our event with your friends!

Every April 22^nd, over a billion people in 190 countries take action for Earth Day, according to earthday.org. The Hague will also house a special Earth Day celebration this Tuesday, April 22^nd, 2014, from 17:00-20:00 in a Treehut–in this case, The American Book Store’s ABC Treehut, located at Lange Poten 23 just off Het Plein.

Everyone is welcome!

The Hague Earth Day Celebration is a fun, interactive event where you can find out about green initiatives and projects in The Hague, be exposed to a plethora of books on the environment, attend a book signing, eat fresh, organic food and meet eco-minded people.

In attendance will be representatives from the Algemene Vereniging voor Natuurbescherming (AVN), The Seafirst Foundation, Den Haag in Transitie, Project Bloeiende Boomspiegel, Haags Milieucentrum, among other local environmental groups and authors. I know there were a lot of Dutch words in that last sentence, but the event will be bilingual, thus you can count on plenty of English conversations as well.

Earth Day is a call to action, gathering people together to embrace a sustainable way of life. In The Hague, that call to action can be planting a seed in the soil with The Hague’s own Project Bloeiende Boomspiegel, or a seed in your mind by reading a book with an environmental focus; volunteering for a local beach clean up with the Seafirst Foundation, brainstorming with local politicians and community leaders, or committing to a Seven Change Challenge that will be presented at the event.

Politicians and government representatives will be invited in the spirit of an eco-minded dialogue with community leaders.

Organic food and drink will be for sale by local restaurant Fine Fresh Food, and a number of books that focus on the environment will be showcased by the American Bookstore this day, ranging from non-fiction titles like The Big Thirst, by Charles Fishman, Good Green Guides The Hague, by Harold Verhagen and eco-romance novel Green by Hague-based author Kristin Anderson, who will be signing her novel at the event.

Rather than doing a traditional reading from her book Green, author Kristin Anderson, who co-organized the event with the American Book Center, has taken a rather creative, Tom Sawyeresque approach.

Remember that fence that Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer needed to paint white? Why paint the fence yourself? Better to creatively get all of your friends to do it for you! And this time, the fence is GREEN. In other words, each environmental organization in attendance has been asked to read a small passage from Anderson’s eco-novel Green that relates to their organization before launching into their own five-minute presentation on what their organization does in our community.

If you would like to celebrate Earth Day with other earth-loving people, please join in! If you represent an environmental organization in The Hague, please stop by and meet and greet! For more information, and event updates please contact author Kristin Anderson on Facebook.

If you are new to the concept of Earth Day, this summary on National Geographic explains how it came into existence 44 years ago and why it is so important.

Hope to see you there!