This weekend, as is so often the case on Vashon, there is something interesting and important to do because a group of islanders got together and made it happen.

The event is the Earth Day celebration at Vashon High School. This is the second such event; the first was held last year. It drew a crowd and was a success, and this one promises to be as well, with music and artists and an array of thoughtful speakers, including a 14-year-old award-winning filmmaker from Orcas Island.

We expect to be inspired.

Recently, one of the organizers, Kevin Jones, whose name is getting to be commonplace in The Beachcomber for his variety of activism efforts, summed up the importance of the weekend activities in just a few words.

“Because the Earth needs us now,” he said. “Climate and the environment need so much of our attention.”

Jones, who spearheaded the recent effort to get Puget Sound Energy to rely on renewable energy sources, is a member of Vashon’s Climate Action Group. That group came about after the last presidential election, when many islanders were feeling despair about President Donald Trump’s win. Because misery loves company, islander Andy James put out a call to islanders who wanted to join him in working on climate issues. Prior to the meeting, James wrote a charter for the group, which stated that its mission included performing concrete actions to combat climate change and mitigate its harmful effects.

“I am of the mind that doing something every day is good for the soul, and we can be good for each other doing that,” he said at the time.

Indeed, the group has been one of action, and we believe the island is better off because of their work. We wonder what they might accomplish next. We are eager to see.

It’s notable that Earth Day was launched in a time of political unrest. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, from Wisconsin, was motivated to take action after an oil spill off San Diego in 1970. As several accounts tell it, he decided to harness the energy of the anti-war movement and funnel it to the environment — and in what seems nearly unheard of now, he reached across the aisle to do so and worked with a Republican colleague. In many ways, Sen. Nelson was successful. That first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.

These days, it is hard not to feel a sense of slipping backward, and it is important to look for signs of hope amid the current challenges. This weekend’s Earth Day event is one of those signs, and we are grateful for it and the changes, large and small, that it may lead to.