Art-Reach roster artist and area multicultural performer, DARIA decided to celebrate Earth Day in a unique way this year – she’s giving away 6 of her most popular songs to anyone who sends her a suggestion of how they care for the Earth. The cd goes out to her fans in an all-downloadable format with liner notes, songsheets and activities all viewable online, without the need to waste any paper, discs, wrapping, packaging or other unnecessary components. And because it’s free, it shares the idea of consuming less while still having fun with fun with your family, your kids, your classroom or your community. The songs included on this cd include several that have been used in classrooms around the world to teach tolerance, and share positive values and build bridges between cultures. As the Christian Science monitor put it in a recent article about her songs: “When Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou makes music, the world listens– literally!”
What does Daria do with the suggestions she receives about caring for the Earth? She partnered with two other environmentally conscious artists and created a blog called: 1000 Ways To Love The Earth (1000waystolovetheearth.wordpress.com). Since the blog launched on April 4th, they’ve received a landslide of suggestions from countries as far away as Japan, Hungary, France, Uruguay, Australia, the Virgin Island, Russia and the USA. Says DARIA: “ It’s so inspiring to read how important this issue is to folks from around the world and how active they are in finding ways to make a difference in their homes and communities.” Suggestions so far have ranged from serious to simple to silly; such kindergarten teachers who set up their own worm bins, to Japanese school children who eat by lunch by candlelight to conserve energy to a three year old who thought it would be good to “feed the birds and not squish spiders”.
The blog also features a popular spot entitled FREE AND GREEN where popular multicultural artist, Farah Aria offers free Earth Day posters (downloadable, of course) art activities and color poster give-aways. Under that section there are also links to free Earth Day videos and animations plus activity sheets that share how to make instruments such as didgeridoos from all recycled components.
