2026 Earth Day in Photos!

April is the month we set aside to celebrate Earth and all the gifts she gives. It is an opportunity to gather with people in your community to reconnect and enjoy the sights, smells, and sounds of nature around us, especially after a long, cold winter. Of course, when you plan an Earth Day event, you hope that mother nature plays along and gives you warmer temperatures and sunshine, but that is usually a big ask when Earth Day occurs in April, in Indiana. We are at the mercy of a month that is known for its outrageous swings in weather.

This year the White Violet Center team attended three different Earth Day celebrations and two of the three had perfect weather with lots of sun, nice temperatures, and minimal wind. We were at Indiana State University on actual Earth Day for their amazing event and the weather couldn’t have been better. We also participated in the inaugural 12 points Goes Green event on April 25th and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

If you’re doing the math, you know that means that, unfortunately, the White Violet Center Earth Day Festival, held April 18th, was not met with ideal weather. Understandably, that tends to keep some folks at home. However, for those who braved the rain and the colder temperatures, it was a fun-filled day. And for those who attended, a very special thank you!

It is always so incredible to see something that you have been working on for months finally start taking shape and come to life. The Sisters of Providence and White Violet Center are so fortunate to have a wide network of caring, generous volunteers and community partners that show up and share their talents with the community. Families were able to come and see animals, participate in fun activities, learn eco-friendly ways that can make a difference around their homes and communities, and get free things like trees and seeds to help in that effort!

We had nearly 500 people from the community come to this event and over 100 volunteers and staff help ensure that things went smoothly which was essential, especially when we needed to pivot several vendors indoors due to the rain that persisted a little longer than predicted, followed by some gusty wind.

We wish we could name everyone individually for all the amazing help and contributions to making our Earth Day a success, but we do have to highlight the students from Totino Grace High School, who came all the way from Minnesota to volunteer! They were the busy bees buzzing around behind the scenes, helping set up the event days before and also sticking around to help with the teardown.

We also appreciate Ranger Power for sponsoring the tents that kept folks dry and helped block the chilly wind. And a thank you goes out to EPIC Insurance Midwest for their support as well.

We had nearly 40 educational and merchandise vendors, lots of fun exhibits and we introduced our new Laudato Si award program that will be given out each Earth Day. Thanks to the generosity of our community partners at TREES, Inc., we were able to award the past four directors of White Violet Center, including our founder, Sister Ann Sullivan, with trees provided by this wonderful organization which also included a tree planting demonstration. It was incredible to honor Sister Ann along with, Sister Maureen Freeman, Lorrie Heber, and Mary Riley for their contributions to White Violet for the past 30 years!

From vendors like Hallie Hound Barkery and Earth Drops that have been with us for so many years to our strong community partners such as ISU’s Office of Sustainability and Vigo County Invasives Management, we are grateful for all of the folks in our community that show up each year to help us with this event and make it truly special!

Enjoy the photos below from the event!