Each year, the Hellenic Canadian Congress of B.C. organizes and presents Greek Day on West Broadway in Vancouver. This year, Greek Day is going green. Known as one of the largest street festivals in the City of Vancouver, Greek Day attracts 100,000 attendees. Along with that crowd comes a lot of garbage that is removed year after year by Greek Day organizers.
[Photo courtesy of iwona_kellie on Flickr]
“Typically our event produces two 8 ft x 16 ft roll-off bins’ worth of garbage. A continual garbage crew keeps busy throughout the day to clear it all. This year they aim to reduce this considerably, but more importantly revisit the ancient Greek motto of “Healthy Mind, Healthy Body, and Healthy World”, according to Jenny Siormanolakis, Production Manager.
[Photo courtesy of iwona_kellie on Flickr]
The event is promoted as a free family event with the Krinos Main Stage, roaming entertainers, arts, culture, kid’s activity area, music, cooking demonstrations, dancing, live music and tasty food from various vendors.
Sponsor Smithrite Disposal & Recycling has come on board to help this event to go green. Greek Day 2011 will be Smithrite’s largest green event to date. All compost material will be taken to a licensed GVRD facility, a state of the art compost facility that uses a covered aerated static pile method of composting. This method significantly reduces greenhouse gases that would otherwise be expelled into the environment. The compost will enrich growing mediums for commercial, residential, and farming properties in the Lower Mainland.
[Photo courtesy of -sic- on Flickr]
Greek Day is the yearly grand finale to Greek Heritage Month. Become a part of Greek Day, held in the heart of Kitsilano (on West Broadway between MacDonald and Blenheim Streets) on Sunday, June 26th from 11 am – 9 pm. For more information and to become a Greek Day volunteer, please visit the event website.