FORT BELVOIR, Va., (APRIL 26) -- Children received expert environmental education during Fort Belvoir's Earth Day Celebration kick-off event Friday at Tompkins Basin Park. Using interactive demonstrations, environmental professionals shared energy saving tips with infants, elementary students and Families.

The event, hosted by the Directorate of Public Works, featured numerous activities such as tree planting and pollution hopscotch.

"No one really thinks of this as a holiday, but our Earth is everything," said Clara Pintagro, Fort Belvoir Elementary School student.

The school sent a group of safety patrol and student counseling association students to learn about protecting the environment.

"They are able to take this experience and bring it back to the school," said Joyce Matthews, FBES technology specialist.

The Army Environmental Command established the theme for Belvoir's celebration: "Sustaining the Environment for a Secure Future." The theme emphasizes the Army's water, waste and energy efforts to reduce, recycle, re-purpose and recover resources.

Demonstrations incorporating the AEC's efforts included pollution hopscotch, a twist to a well known children's game. Participants had to jump around simulated human pollution and overdevelopment. As the game progressed, more pollution filled the hopscotch blocks, eventually making traveling impossible.

The game simulates the difficulties man-made pollution presents to migrating birds, known as habitat destruction.

"A lot of species have gone into extinction because of habitat destruction," said Greg Fleming, DPW natural resource specialist.

The children also learned valuable safety lessons as part of the observance.

Dominion Virginia Power's safety village taught the importance of electrical safety by showing the consequences of such actions as dropping a radio into a tub. The village also instructed children to avoid playing near transformers and to keep flying kites away from power lines.

"The kids are mesmerized because it's actually a show-and-tell," said Eric Tatum, Dominion transmission and distribution project manager.

Wilamena Harback, DPW program manager for environmental outreach, education and industrial storm water, and the event coordinator, said each vendor's demonstration displayed the Army's commitment to helping the environment.

"The Army works hard to make sure their impact doesn't do any harm by balancing its mission with the environment" Harback said.

Dominion, for example, installed LED lighting technology into the street lights on Belvoir and Gunston Roads.

"They use less power, are more efficient and they last longer," Tatum said. "It's great that Belvoir has participated in this program and allowed us to install them."

Dominion's power next initiative is to coordinate solar panel installation on post with the garrison leadership.

This is the 42nd Earth Day celebration. According to their website, www.earthday.org, former U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson founded the first celebration April 22, 1970.

DPW's kick-off celebration began a weekend full of activities that included a day-long Family campout hosted by the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation on Saturday and on Sunday; Belvoir hosted the 24th Annual Potomac Watershed Clean-Up.

More than one billion people participate in Earth Day activities each year, an effort to improve the world's sustainability for future generations.

The international theme for Earth Day is "Mobilize the Earth," the publics call for governments to place environmental issues at the forefront of the debate.

According to the website the theme is "The Earth won't wait," and they advocate placing the environment's importance to the long term success of each nation, on equal footing with topics such as a nation's economics.

The movement calls on leaders to end fossil fuel subsidies, embrace renewable energy technologies, improve energy efficiency and make energy universally accessible.

Introducing energy efficient vehicles into the market may be one step toward helping the environment.

Dominion Power and General Motors displayed electric cars during the event.

The vehicles reduce the nation's dependency on oil and are cheaper to operate than gasoline-dependent vehicles.

"It's a great opportunity for a military child to learn," said Kymani Roberts, FBES student. "We need the environment to help us survive."