Water Week ’25 Progressive Blog

On Friday night, I attended a fantastic Movie Night at Village Park in West Lampeter Township as part of Lancaster Water Week 2025. The event had an incredible community vibe — kids were laughing, parents were relaxing by the fire pits, and everyone was enjoying the warm evening air. I helped color in a giant clean water mural, which turned into a beautiful splash of community creativity. Popcorn and mini s’mores were free while they lasted (I managed to snag both!), and there were games like cornhole scattered across the lawn. The highlight? Tow Mater showed up in person to celebrate the shoing of Pixar’s “Cars”, thanks to Kings Automotive Services — a huge hit with the crowd!

What a way to start my day, hiking along the Conestoga River, learning about the history and future of the Sunnyside Penninsula!  Led by representatives from Lancaster Conservancy and the City of Lancaster, we trekked through several different habitats, including an upland buffer, forested areas, wetlands and a flooded quarry.  The land, a greenspace in Lancaster City, has been used for recreation, residential, commerce and more over the years, is a prime environment for natural diversity.

I was delighted to be back on Blue Green Connector for the Blue Green Connector Preview Hike tonight, hosted by The Little Conestoga Creek Foundation and their partners ELA Group, LandStudies, and F&M’s Chesapeake Watershed Initiative.  I was amazed how much the land on the wetlands side of Marietta Avenue had changed just since the Earth Day presentation a month and a half ago.  We learned about the planned educational opportunities, the benefits of returning the land to its orginal purchose, saw plenty of birds and even a fox.  This collaborative project, initiated by The Steinman Foundation, is already creating exciting possibilities for both our environment and our community.

The second stop today was at Eurofins Campus Green Infrastructure and Native Habitat Tour.  What a beautiful tour of a corporate campus designed for environmental, employee, and community health.  The first stop on the tour was their riparian buffer of over 1,000 native trees, planted in conjunction with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay in 2019.  The second stop was the employee garden, which grows vegetables, pollinators and herbs.  The final stop was the 12,880 square foot rain garden, planted in 2020 and managed by LandStudies, Inc.  What a beautiful way to end the day!

First up today, I visited the Summer STEM Camp at Lancaster Science Factory.  To say I was blown away by how the students are learning would be an understatement.   It was amazing to watch young students using a variation of CAD and 3-D printers to build sections of a town that would all be connected by the waterways to study such challenges as stormwater management.  It is exciting to see the next generation of conservation-minded citizens at work.

I was really looking forward to this one.  I attended Sacred Habitats Nature Walk at Ascension Lutheran Church.  Hosted by Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake and led by Mike Hudson, the Outreach Coordinator for Pennsylvania, this was a tour of the clean water projects that have been, and are continuing to be, undertaken by Ascension Church.  From the rain garden in front and on the side of the church, overseen by Waxwing Ecoworks Co., to the riparian buffer extension, overseen by Stroud Water Research Center and some future projects still being planned, it is exciting how much this congregation has embraced environmental stewardship. 

We had to dodge a few raindrops for this one.  Lancaster Conservancy held a session called  Nature Journaling: Water at Climbers Run.  Hosted by volunteers from the Conservancy, we first had an instructional session on available materials before a little over an hour to explore the nature center to write down our reflections and experiences.  Afterwards, we came back together to discuss our thoughts. 

Welcome to the beginning of Water Week!  Tonight is First Friday both at the Science Factory and Downtown Lancaster.  Before things get busy, I decided to run down to the square to take a few pre-celebration pictures of the Monolith.

Make sure that you are checking the schedule of events for Water Week.

If you don’t know a whole lot about Water Week, you can listen to Keith Williams and Kelly Snavely from Lancaster Conservancy talk about the history of the event and tell some great stories on episodes 7 and 8 of the Clean Water Conversations podcast.