The Green Festival Experience

Thank you, EcoDeaf, for posting the Green Festival event on your website over the summer.

The Green Festival experience was a whirlwind and magical journey that I will never forget. It was rather spontaneous, hectic, and all the last minute plans were done through synchronicity. I found out about the Green Festival event when I was volunteering at Camp Mark Seven. J.J. who I worked with at the camp encouraged me to sign up for it and so I did.

When the Green Festival weekend was approaching, I almost forgot about it. I made the last minute request to have that weekend off from work. Then I drove down from Buffalo, New York to Washington D.C. with my housemate Mike on Friday evening. We stayed at Hilltop Hostel on the first night then we couchsurfed at a friend's house on the second night that we met through www.couchsurfing.com. I would highly recommend Hilltop Hostel if you are planning to stay in Washington D.C. Wonderful services and people, too. In the morning, we took the metro train, which was right around the corner from Hilltop Hostel, from Takoma Station to the Mount Vernon Square/7th Street–Convention Center. It was a nice green feeling that we curbed our emissions by not using the car at all as we hopped on metro trains, a bus, and a cab during the whole weekend.


The first day at Green Festival was exciting. I did not have the time to look at different tables on that day. Mike went off taking notes from different presentations. During the afternoon, I volunteered by collecting recyclable items placed in bio-degradable bags and I brought the bags to the back room where items were sorted out in categories by other volunteers. The festival was very crowded with eco-friendly people. I was feeling exhausted by the end of the day, but I felt spiritually great after traveling to Washington D.C. and volunteering at the Green Festival, too.


During those two days at the Green Festival, I listened to Madeline Kunin, Amy Goodman, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Carolyn Casey. I was inspired by all of those speakers. I was really impressed with the ASL interpreters. They did wonderful jobs during those presentations. Thank you, interpreters!


It was nice to meet old and new deaf friends from Washington, D.C. and it was a pleasure to sign with each of you. I thought it was awesome to see a group of people from Green Gallaudet volunteering at the Green Festival on Saturday evening. That was amazing and I would like to join them next time. Also, it was great to meet down to earth and caring people and drummers from www.onecommonunity.com , too.

Was the Green Festival an 'earth-riching' experience? Absolutely!

Namaste,
Anthony Brucato