By Jade Eckardt (source)

ISLIP, NY — An Earth Day fair offering a day of environmentally focused fun for all ages is coming to the Suffolk County Environmental Center at the Scully Estate in Islip on Sunday, April 27, from noon to 4 p.m.

The fair will feature dozens of vendors, an animal show by Ranger Eric Powers, live music by Victoria Said, a scavenger hunt, DIY bouquet making, food, nature walks, Narcan training by the Suffolk County Police Department and The Purple Rock Project, and various resources on addiction, recovery, healing and grief.

The fair is sponsored by Long Island Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence and Gabriel’s Giving Tree, a non-profit that helps local families with the costs of burying loved ones who died from drug overdoses.

Paulette Phillippe of Mattituck founded GGT to honor Gabriel, her 15-year-old grandson who died from an overdose.

Community members are welcome to join a clean-up of the Tree Memorial and Serenity Garden section of the estate at 10 a.m. Gardening tools will be supplied.

The Serenity Garden is also home to a "wind phone" installed by GGT, which offers people a way to connect with loved ones they've lost.

"Wind phones are a comfort tool for anyone who is grieving and you can think of it as a phone for people with no earthly phone number. Your message is sent on the wind," Purple Rock Project founder and opioid awareness advocate Carole Trottere, who lost her son Alex to fentanyl in 2018, told Patch in a previous interview.

Wind phones originated in Japan in 2010 when Itaru Sasaki was grieving a cousin who died of cancer. Sasaki found an old-fashioned phone booth, installed an old rotary phone and put it in his garden. It was there he felt connected to his cousin and found comfort while grieving. He named it, Kaze No Denwa, aka he "Telephone of the Wind."

According to My Wind Phone, there are currently 250 wind phones across the United States, 107 around the world, and 16 "coming soon."

Suffolk County Environmental Center is located at 550 South Bay Avenue in Islip. For more information, call 631-786-0368 or email gabriel.givingtree@gmail.com