Earthly Discoveries

Kids in the county can celebrate Earth Day a little ahead of its official April 22 date by cruising dozens of interactive events in Oxnard on Saturday. They will discover some memorable ways of thinking about earth, air, fire and water.

The Oxnard College campus will be transformed into a bazaar filled with about 40 “eco” booths, plus live music performances and food stands. Here are a few suggestions:

Artistically inclined kids can express their ideas about the environment--and perhaps gain a bit of artistic immortality--by painting part of a 150-square-foot set of panels destined as a mural for the Del Norte Recycling station.

The Audubon Society booth will offer a nature-related activity. For a $1 donation, kids (or adult bird fanciers) can build and carry home a bird-feeding station and a supply of special feeding seed.

Ed Concilio of the city’s Storm Water Program will operate an interactive “Enviroscape” exhibit. He’ll provide materials for inflicting “pollution” on a miniature city and countryside displayed at his booth. Participants can sprinkle “pesticides” (instant drink crystals) on lawns and fields, dump “motor oil” (soy sauce) on driveways and streets and pile up “doggie-doo and farm animal waste” (powdered chocolate) in gutters and ditches.

Then they can turn on a “rainstorm” (with a hose) and see, in miniature, how all this stuff runs into the storm drain system and into the ocean where we swim and fish.

Another booth (actually a house scaled down to kid’s size) worth a visit will be operated by the Oxnard Fire Department. The realistic model home serves as a portable fire-safety educational facility.

As explained by Oxnard Fire Marshal Haywood Merricks, kids will find out what it’s like to be in a burning house. “They should feel the door of the room where they are to see if it’s hot, and if so, climb out the window,” he said. At his Kid’s Safety House display, he and his colleagues will deploy fake nontoxic smoke, which will set off real smoke detectors, and help kids climb from the house to safety.

BE THERE

Earth Day Celebration, Sat., 10 a.m.-3 p.m., at Oxnard College campus, 4000 S. Rose Ave. Free. Call 986-5809 or 385-7928.