A natural way to celebrate the Earth

KRISTIE GRIER CERUTI and DON MCGLYNN For the Times Leader

CLARKS SUMMIT – One owner of Everything Natural in Clarks Summit doesn’t have to skip school these days to participate in Earth Day, so instead he redirects his unyielding enthusiasm for saving the Earth to the greater good.

“All three of the owners (at Everything Natural) were involved in Earth Day in 1970,” said Barry Kaplan. “I actually cut class and got caught when a photo of me ran in the newspaper.”

Kaplan said he and his wife Donna and the third partner in the business, Michelle Cooper, were at Courthouse Square in Scranton for the first local Earth Day celebration.

“We got into organic gardening back in the 60s,” he added.

Kaplan said he is excited each year to see the public get more actively involved in Earth Day. “This was always a big deal for us because it’s part of the mission of the business: show gratitude to Earth by the selection of products and the knowledge that we share.”

Earth Day events at the Clarks Summit store are hardly new, but with the business expansion a few years ago, they are able to do more, Kaplan said. “This will be our seventh as big as it is – when we moved to the new building in 2003 it allowed us to have bigger events.”

And by bigger events, he refers to everything from an entire interactive gallery experience, meditative yoga, educational booths and sampling.

Kaplan gave a preview of the Earth Day Open House events at Everything Natural, which will take place today from 1 to 5 p.m.

“In our gallery we’re going to have an interactive experience: Prayers for the Earth.” “It’s Val’s creation,” said Kaplan, of artist Val Kiser.

Prayers for the Earth will be an interactive art installation for the public with prayers for the earth. The public is invited to view today through Saturday, May 23, and add to it by dropping off prayers to be a part of the installation.

“It’s just a fun thing to bring the community together and participate in something,” said Kiser.

“It will be fun for us, and them, to see it on day one and see how it changes as people bring things in, it will be up to everybody to make the project be what it will be by the end.”

Members of the community are also invited to bring any object they feel will add to the installation as well.

On May 23, Everything Natural will hold a special burning ceremony where they will burn all of what they have collected, releasing it all back into the earth. The time will be announced in the store’s May newsletter.

“We’ll have sampling and educational booths – specifically we’re featuring reusable water bottles and non-aluminum, organic foods and non-genetically modified foods (GMO),” Kaplan said. “Nora Fox and Barbara Cohen, our two yoga instructors, are going to be hosting a meditative type of music called Kirtan.”

Eddie Smith of Body and Soul Therapeutic Massage and Beverly and Kim Gordon of Reflexology will be on hand performing chair massage and reflexology.

Scheduled events will take place from 1 to 5 p.m., but the store will be open its regular hours of Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.