What a fantastic day!!!

This South End Earth Day/SoilSHOP celebration was hosted at Radix!

The New York State Department of Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) offered FREE lead screening for neighborhood soils, provided lead hazard reduction and healthy gardening practices education, children’s activities, and fresh fruit for participants.  ATSDR staff travelled from NYC, NJ and Atlanta, GA and Louisiana to attend and film the event.  Radix and AVillage…, Inc. partnered to advertise the event and organize the collection of soil samples from around the South End.

The Event was also made a huge success with the help from:

Black Nurses’ Coalition: Brenda Robinson, R.N. provided blood pressure screening to participants.
Youth Organics provided children’s activities.
Chef’s Consortium provided live food demonstrations
Eat Smart NY provided live food demonstrations and healthy snacks
Brooklyn College provided students to assist with screening samples with the XRF
Tetratech, Inc. provided staff to assist with screening samples with the XRF and provided health education to residents on lead hazard reduction and healthy gardening practices
Ooblek Fund Band provided music
Sprout Veggie Mobile-sold fresh produce and provided music
MaMa ZUMBA-provided ZUMBA class to residents
Albany County Health Department’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program provided blood lead testing and lead hazard reduction information to residents
New York State Department of Health’s Hudson River Fish Advisory provided information on fishing and safe fish to eat.

 

The morning was filled with the fabulous sounds of OOBLECK!  It was so great to have them christen our new lot with horns and drums and bass!

 

Violet helped the main organizer Cathe Bullwinkle from the NYSDOH draw the winning raffle tickets!  Radix won some much needed hand trowels! Complete coincidence – I swear!

AVillage put up this beautiful chalkboard for people to fill in:

 

Fatima Horne was on the scene to get people exercising! (She offers Zumba classes every Saturday as part of our Healthy South End project- Check it out!!!)

Youth Organics were counseled about the test results from the Hawk St. Garden – Hawk’s results are awesome!!!!

ATSDR interviewed our neighbors about how lead contamination has impacted their lives.

*Please note that the XRF device used in this test is a screening device.  IF you are looking for a definitive ppm, you should send samples off to one of the registered laboratories listed here.

 

We look forward to South End Earth Day 2016!  We are hoping to be able to offer lead soil screenings – please contact us if you are interested.