Earth Day may fall on a Tuesday, April 22, but Revelstoke has big plans both before and after that date to engage the community's green side and get people thinking more sustainably.

The Illecillewaet Greenbelt Society (IGS) hosts its first-ever cleanup from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 26, inviting locals to band together and spend a few hours delittering any part of the greenbelt or wider city they desire. The team to collect the most trash wins an undisclosed prize.

Teal Randle, an IGS board member who originally proposed the idea of an Earth Day cleanup after arriving in Revelstoke last November, said both teams and solo individuals may participate.

"We'd like to have businesses come and register their team as well," she said. "Anyone is welcome and encouraged to come."

The staging grounds for the cleanup will be along the trail at the end of Vernon Road, by the truck shelter that sits between the paved trail and the Illecillewaet River pedestrian bridge.

While garbage bags and disposable gloves will be available at the event, "we would encourage people to bring their own gloves that are reusable and washable," Randle added.

Parties can pick a favourite trail to clean up or head farther afield to tackle a more littered swath of town. While the event is concentrated in the greenbelt, "I think people actually really love these trails because they're really clean," Randle admitted, saying it would be stellar if some groups took a go at tidying up the trails near Big Eddy.

Also, local organizations such as the Revelstoke Local Food Initiative Society will run information booths on site Saturday afternoon, allowing Earth Day-goers to bolster and test their eco-knowledge in a quiz for another prize.

"It will be a great opportunity for community members to do some spring cleaning of the many trails around town - or even just the roads and lanes near their houses," Roger Galbraith, IGS president, said in an email. "Teal has come up with some creative ideas to make (Earth Day) more fun."

Meanwhile, the Stoke Youth Network is getting a head start on Earth Day this Wednesday, April 16, with its environmental action team running an educational fair at Revelstoke Secondary School from 12:45 to 2:45 p.m.

Community organizations are invited each year to present to students on sustainability, with the school's Grade 12 environmental science class also sharing findings on initiatives they've researched, according to youth liaison Ainslee Arthurs.

"It's set up as booths so classes can come through and engage in an activity and learn about sustainable initiatives," Arthurs shared by email.

This April 22 marks the 55th anniversary of Earth Day, which first launched in the U.S. in 1970.