Procession of the Species

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A baby octopus reaches for daddy's hand

The Procession of the Species Celebration is an annual, community arts-based Earth Day celebration in Olympia, Washington. It was started in 1995 by a group of Olympia residents to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Earth Day and to support Congressional renewal of the Endangered Species Act.

Today Procession of the Species is the largest annual Earth Day celebration in the Puget Sound area and Cascadia bioregion. In a city of just over 42,000, it draws 30,000-35,000 spectator participants and 2,000-3,000 Processioneers. The celebration is completely noncommercial, made possible by community contributions of money, materials, time, and skills. The event has three ground rules: no live pets, no motorized vehicles, and no written words. Participants use a wide range of artistic approaches and mostly donated or scavenged materials to express appreciation for the natural world: costumes, banners, floats, puppets, drumming, community bands, and more. Procession organizers establish a Community Arts Center for the weeks prior to Procession Day, where community members come together to create or practice their Procession creations.^{[citation needed]}

Inspired by Olympia's event, Procession of the Species celebrations have happened or are planned in states around the U.S. and nations around the world. It is a nationally recognized model for community arts-based involvement, environmental education, arts education, and cultural exchange.

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a big bird with a few frogs	Have I got a whale of a tale to tale...	A black cat with glasses and playing a drum	Catus chased by a black scorpion
Anemone with a playful clown fish	colorful dancers	Flock of birds	Flowers bloom
Flowers dance as a baby whatches	Flowers walking in parade	Is this green sea weed?	Lady bug, lady bug...
I saw a man on an EMU - I think?	My mommy is a butterfly - what am I?	Octopus swim by as I watch	black spider crawled out of old man tree
Peace dove over band	pink flamago	Rats on prade	Scorpion
Sea horse & turtle	Dragon	Jelly fish and Whale	purple bird rides zebra
Zebra head	Red bug	Monster fish	It's a fish eat fish world