Carol Pilant, left, and Lora Jost, both of Lawrence, read banners made to raise awareness about global warming Saturday at the Read-Out, Sing-Out, Speak-Out, Act-Out, Dance-Out on Earthcare marathon event at Watson Park. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., participants took turns voicing their joys and concerns about the environment.

Bill Langsdorf, left, and Lynn Snyder of the band Checkered Past warm up Saturday at the Read-Out, Sing-Out, Speak-Out, Act-Out, Dance-Out on Earthcare at Watson Park.

With the blue sky above and the green lawn stretched out below them, a small group gathered at the gazebo in Watson Park on Saturday to pay tribute to the earth.

“We thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our place here in Kansas and our life on the Earth beneath these beautiful skies,” said Beth Schultz of the Oread Friends Meeting’s Environmental Committee.

From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., participants came and went, taking turns at a microphone to broadcast their joys and concerns about the environment. The event was the first of what is hoped to be an annual gathering called the “Read-out, Sing-out, Act-out, Dance-out on Earthcare.”

Organized by the Oread Friends Meeting, a Quaker congregation, the event kicked off the month of April, which culminates with Earth Day on April 22.

The participants’ respect for the earth took on several forms. Some sang. Some danced. One participant read from the Bible. Another read from the works of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Joe Bickford brought his guitar and led the group in “This Land is Your Land.”

Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, discussed the environmental issues she’s dealing with in the legislature, including the heated debate over the construction of two 700-megawatt coal-fired plants near Holcomb. The proposed plants would send more than 85 percent of the power produced to customers in Colorado and other states.

Francisco voiced several points of concern about the legislative discussion and called the proposal to build the plants nonsensical.

“We’re building it in a location that doesn’t necessarily make sense because we’re bringing coal past the place that it would be used, again using energy, and sending it back on transmission lines where energy again is lost,” she said.

Francisco said the debate has lacked emphasis on a larger state discussion about energy production and use in the future.

“The problem in the legislature has been that we are focusing on how to pass legislation to undo a single decision, rather than trying to set a plan or a focus for how we move forward,” she said.

Saturday’s gathering drew young people of all ages, including a group of Kansas University students representing Lawrence Fair Food. The students, who performed a skit, announced their plans for a noon march on Saturday from the Kansas Union to the Burger King on 23rd Street. The event is meant to highlight issues of worker’s rights and fair food, organizers said.

Schultz said the daylong gathering brought together all of the many interests within the community and created an opportunity for participants to learn from one another and enjoy the nature.

“We’re celebrating this community commitment to sustainability, to a community concerned with reducing, recycling and reusing,” she said, “and doing it in a beautiful Lawrence park that’s known to us all.”