(CARTERET, NJ) -- The Third Annual Carteret Earth Day Celebration will take place on Saturday, April 20, 2024 in Carteret Park on Carteret Avenue at Cypress Street. This year the popular event includes a wellness expo featuring a dozen vendors. They either will be selling holistic, organic products or providing wellness services, including physical therapy, chiropractic care, health screenings, yoga, and exercise classes. The event runs from 11:00am to 2:00pm.

“The best way to take care of the planet is to take care of ourselves,” Mayor Daniel J. Reiman said. “For that reason, the Annual Carteret Earth Day Celebration now includes a wellness expo that will offer a variety of vendors who have Carteret residents’ best interests in mind.”

Wellness Expo participants will include: 

* Amway, manufacturer and distributor of nutrition, beauty, personal care and home products

* Garden State Therapy, multi-disciplined practice based in downtown Carteret that will offer physical and occupational therapy

* Healthier Middlesex, diverse, multi-sector, community-focused consortium comprised of a wide variety of stakeholders, including community organizations, academic institutions and health departments  

* OlmedoSoul, New Jersey family-owned small business that handcrafts jewelry made with healing crystals, including bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces, and keychains

* Rahway Refillery, local No Waste Marketplace that provides bulk items for the kitchen and home often within recyclable containers, as well as community education about a No Waste lifestyle  

* Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway Community Outreach, local medical center that will provide free health screenings, such as blood pressure and blood sugar, as well as mental health resources

* RWJ Fitness & Wellness Center at Carteret, multi-faceted Borough-based fitness and wellness center that will be offering a Zumba class in the park 

* Savvy Fit Soaps, all natural soaps, body butters, lotions and deodorants made from 100 percent plant-based ingredients

* World of Wellness, practice based in downtown Carteret that will demonstrate its various services, which include chiropractic, pain management, sports rehab, hormone replacement therapy, IV infusions, and physical therapy

* Zaro Sports, Borough-based strength training studio that will offer a demonstration of services

* Zentimacy, Borough-based yoga studio that will provide kid's yoga and massage therapy.

Story times with Carteret children’s author D.J. Duvalsaint also will be a part of the wellness expo. She will read from her three books – “Sky’s First Swimming Lesson,” “A King of Chess” and “Victor Discovers the Violin” – throughout the event.

Children also will enjoy bouncy houses, a community art project led by Central Jersey Arts Council, and the live interactive band Bash the Trash, who play environmental-minded songs on instruments made of recycled materials. Event highlights also will include food trucks, DJ music, and municipal, community, charity and county information booths, including a presentation by Savnoor Kaur, a Carteret High School junior recently chosen to participate in Monaco’s Junk Kouture sustainable fashion contest with a recyclable gown of her own design.

“We are extremely proud of Savnoor and her amazing accomplishment representing Carteret at such a prestigious event,” Mayor Daniel J. Reiman said. “We look forward to her presenting her work at the Carteret Earth Day Celebration.”

Being only one of 10 U.S. high school students chosen to compete in Junk Kouture was an unbelievable honor, Kaur said. It marked the first time she ever modeled, and to do so on the fashionable French Riviera was daunting, she said.

Junk Kouture challenges ages 13 to 19 worldwide to create an original couture made entirely from recyclable waste. “Lost Beauty” was chosen from more than 1,600 entries from students in 20 nations on six continents.

“‘Lost Beauty’ is an homage to my culture’s traditional Indian lehenga,” Kaur said. “But instead of the floor-length skirts, decorative blouses and shawl-like scarfs called dupatta that usually make up lehenga, I used old plastic bottles, bags, table covers, twigs, dried leaves, recycled cardboard and paper, including pieces of old homework and textbooks, and pieces of old clothing and shoes. It took three months to complete, so it was challenging but also fun to design and complete.”

Volunteers are needed throughout the celebration for the annual spring cleanup of Carteret Park, as well as the Borough’s Adopt a Park program, which coordinates a town-wide fall park cleanup. Cleanup volunteers will gather at 10:00am in Carteret Park, an hour before the event opens to the public.

To volunteer or just obtain more info about the Third Annual Carteret Earth Day Celebration, contact the Clean Communities Office at 732-541-3835 or makinb@carteret.net. Updates about the event will be available at Carteret.net or by following @MyCarteret on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BOROUGH OF CARTERET