There was a great amount of commotion and excitement going on inside the Lion’s Club Fair Park on Wednesday as students from every Selma City elementary school celebrated Earth Day 2004.

As kindergarten through fifth-graders passed through the indoor exhibits at the park, they had a chance to examine and touch everything from live snakes to dead animal skins.

Meadowview Elementary School Principal Janis Stewart said the main focus of Earth Day was land, air, water, and animals &045; the four major components that make up this world.

As students walked from station to station, they learned about weather from representatives of the National Weather Service, the dangers of electricity from Alabama Power, and how to turn trees into paper from employees of International Paper.

There was also a long-bearded speaker who referred to himself as &uot;Hugging Bear&uot; who spoke to the students about how important nature is for food, shelter, and recreation.

Stewart said nearly 1,300 children from all city schools attended the Earth Day celebration, along with several community volunteers serving as chaperons.

This was the fifth year Meadowview Elementary has been the host of Earth Day, but the event has taken place in Selma for the past 11 years, originally starting at the School of Discovery.

At each station, Stewart said, fifth-graders served as helpers for the guest speakers as a special treat for celebrating their last year of participating in Earth Day.

Earth Day lasted for most of the afternoon at the park, finally sending students back to their schools just before 3 p.m.