Planting seeds for the future on a healthy planet

Seven-year-old Carly Sauvageau sat at a crafts table in the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada on Saturday morning and meticulously dipped a paintbrush into a cup of watered-down glue.

She carefully applied strips of recycled tissue paper onto an empty plastic bottle of milk, turning what would normally be considered trash into an eco-friendly bird feeder.

"She's very artistic. She spends about two to three hours a day drawing pictures," said her father, Ted, who brought his daughter to the museum to celebrate Earth Day.

The bird feeders were just one of the craft projects for kids to work on at the museum.

Sandy Hatchell, executive assistant of the museum, gave a tour.

"Everything we're doing today, we're using recycled materials for," she said.

Excess fabric swatches and a little glue - napkin rings.

Leftover wallpaper samples plus strands of yarn and squared-off sheets of paper donated by Pip Printing - notepads.

Hatchell puts her hand conspiratorially to her mouth with a smile and whispers, "It makes a good Mother's Day present."

Empty soup cans wrapped with colorful yarn - vases and pencil holders.

Carson City Recycling provided a video with a remarkable (yet suspiciously uncredited) voice-over performance by actor Jack Nicholson portraying a talking aluminum can that gets run over by a passing steamroller and (Spoiler alert!) ultimately recycled.

The can's mouth contorts into Nicholson's classic "The Shining" smile.

"Littering is so uncool," he says, almost maniacally.

"We've gotten over 600 pounds of cans in today," reported Carson City Recycling owner Rodger Morse via telephone.

He said the company pays 30 cents per pound of aluminum cans, and it takes approximately 30 12-ounce cans to make a pound.

"We try to help out as much as we can," he said, mentioning that the company works hand-in-hand with many local charities to build can-collecting fund-raisers.

Still, Morse said he still sees a lot of recyclable materials going into the landfill.

"Basically, they're throwing out money," he said.

"Earth Day is really an investment in the future," said museum board member Frieda Ford, who started the celebration at the museum four years ago.

Ford says with issues like rising gas prices and Yucca Mountain in the news, the environment is something that should be taken into consideration every day of the year.

"I think the kids are much more aware than they used to be," she says, watching 7-year-old Carly finish her bird feeder.

n Contact reporter Peter Thompson at pthompson@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.