Heritage Park springs to life for Scappoose’s biggest Earth Day celebration yet
Published 5:00 pm Monday, April 28, 2025
Scappoose residents showed out to show their love for the environment and the community at this year’s Earth Day celebration in Heritage Park.
On Saturday, April 26, Heritage Park was the place to be for free food, live music, giveaways and lots of opportunities to learn about how to protect the environment. A volunteer-run effort coordinated by the Scappoose Public Library, the event marked the fourth annual Earth Day celebration and the biggest one yet, with about 250 families joining in the festivities, Library Director Jeff Weiss said.
“Earth Day is intended to be a way to clean up and plant in the community, and then a celebration afterwards,” Weiss said.
The day kicked off with a cleanup across the city, including free breakfast for those who participated. The party in Heritage Park began soon after as environmental groups set up booths and educated attendees about sustainability and nature. The Scappoose Police Department served up burgers and hot dogs donated by Grocery Outlet for lunch, and performances by The Decades and Cater Hill Band got the crowd moving to classic tunes.
New this year was a food drive benefitting the Columbia Pacific Food Bank, which is facing decreased supply in the wake of canceled support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Community members donated nearly 500 pounds of nonperishable food, organizer JJ Duehren said.
“We’ll continue to take it,” Duehren said. “Because, obviously, people in need, need to feed.”
And while people come to the event for the fun, organizers hope they leave as environmental advocates empowered to do their part for the planet. People can make conscious efforts to reduce their impact on the environment by driving electric vehicles, installing solar panels, growing their own food and more, Duehren said.
“We saw a record-high temperature last week of 81 degrees in the Portland metro, and that is going to continue unless we begin to make meaningful changes in our planet and in our behavior,” Duehren said. “And there are simple things that people can do.”
