Great Parks and hundreds of volunteers and guests will celebrate Earth Day with the second “Protect Your Wild” event at Winton Woods on April 20. Volunteers will clean the banks and woods around Winton Lake from 9 a.m.-noon. The community and Great Parks volunteers are then welcome to a special Earth Day-themed celebration at Winton Harbor, continuing from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

This year’s Earth Day celebration will again center on Winton Harbor, and include dozens of organizations offering food, games, music, environmental information, animal encounters, sustainable or homemade products for sale, and lots of fun. All guests are welcome to the Earth Day celebration, and people do not need to participate in the morning cleanup to join the celebration.

Winton Woods is one of the most popular Great Parks destinations, featuring over 2,500 acres of room to explore, including the 175-acre Winton Lake. Over many months, the tributaries that surround Winton Lake wash in litter and recyclables from the surrounding community. The annual volunteer-driven cleanup renews the park for another year. Last year during Protect Your Wild, volunteers collected dozens of bags of recycling and litter, tossing them into a dumpster before joining the Earth Day celebration later in the day.

While there is no charge to join the cleanup or celebration, cleanup volunteers are asked to register at greatparks.org by April 15 to ensure enough cleaning supplies are available.