Published: April 26, 2008 08:56 pm      

Art work brightens up Rain Barrel Festival

BEREA — Dark clouds hovered low overhead Saturday and the ground was damp from a light shower, but brightly painted barrels made for a colorful scene as Berea launched the first Rain Barrel Festival.

The historic drought of 2007 was only a memory, but those memories and heartfully painted barrels were enough to fill Memorial Park with people. The drought, which began in late spring and persisted into fall, was a “wake-up call” to a lot of people, said Mark Jeantheau, as he took a break from fitting unpainted barrels for sale.

Jeantheau, who moved to Berea from Maryland about three years ago, is a member of Sustainable Berea, which organized the festival. “Every downspout without a rain barrel is a wasted opportunity,” he said. “If 2,000 of these 55-gallon barrels are filled 10 times, that represents over 1 million gallons of water.”

As he proclaimed Rain Barrel Festival Day, Berea Mayor Steve Connelly said the city’s municipal utility pumps 3.5 milion gallons of water each day.

“It takes surprising little rain to fill one of these barrels,” said Sustainable Berea member Donna Wellman. “Even runoff from the dew that collects on your roof will help fill a rain barrel.”

The festival promoters do not suggest drinking rain-barrel water. “You can use rain-barrel water to irrigate your flowers and vegetable garden,” Wellman said. Sustainable Berea also promotes home gardens.

Both painted and unpainted barrels sold quickly. Unpainted barrels were sold to members of Sustainable Berea for $45 and to non-members for $55. Memberships could be purchased for $25. “We sold 63 unpainted barrels in the first 40 minutes,” Wellman said. About 65 painted barrels were sold in both a live and a silent auction, with bidding starting at $65. The live auction sold 25 barrels in 50 minutes.

A barrel painted by members of the Kentucky Native Plant Society went for $300, the top price in the live auction.

Many barrels were painted with nature scenes, such as flowers, trees, butterflies, streams and fish.

“This is a flower barrel, not a flour barrel,” said auctioneer John Gilliam, as he prepared to auction a barrel painted with a floral design.

In addition to conservation groups, barrels were submitted by art, church, civic and youth groups. To defray their costs, 75 percent of the sale price went to the group which bought and painted the barrels.

Richard Olson of Sustainable Berea’s board of directors called the festival a success. “We’ve had a great turnout despite the threat of rain, and everyone is in great spirits,” he said. Olson also was pleased to see numerous other conservation groups set up educational exhibits for the festival.

Berea College, the Kentucky Division of Water, the Kentucky RiverKeeper, the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, Kentucky Watershed Watch, Appalachia – Science in the Public Interest and The Head of Three Rivers Project were among the participating organizations.

Several focused more on pure water than water supply.

The Watershed Watch group recruits and trains volunteers to collect water samples and submit them to state authorities for testing. The Kentucky, Cumberland and Big Sandy rivers all have headwaters in Letcher County, said Sam Adams of The Head of Three Rivers Projects. He displayed a sample of acid water runoff from a coal mine. It had eaten holes in the fingers of vinyl gloves soaked in the water.

For more details, visit the Web site sustainableberea.org.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 267.