The papers consist of documents relating to the planning of Earth Day 1990 St. Louis and a program for the 1996 Earth Day celebration. The papers are divided into two series: Earth Day 1990 St. Louis and Earth Day Community Festival 1996, which consists of one file. The files in the Earth Day 1990 St. Louis series are arranged alphabetically by topic and date from 1988 to 1996. The bulk of the papers date 1990; there are no documents from 1991 to 1995.

Administrative documents relating to Earth Day 1990 include budgets and financial ledgers (f.2), an early coordinator’s report from 1989 (f.5), and a few agenda and meeting minutes from the Public Relations and Marketing Committee and from the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee minutes (f.15) provide insight into the attitude of festival staff toward the inclusion of businesses and corporations who had, in the past, failed to follow environmentally friendly practices. The job descriptions are for the positions of business manager and events coordinator. Ponzi’s handwritten notes and messages reveal small details related to planning (f.12). There are also site plans and maps for the event and the event logo, a brightly colored illustration printed on felt reading “Earth Day 90 Make a Change” (f.6).

Earth Day 1990 complied a large list of Missouri and Illinois business, personal, and non-profit contact information in March 1990 which included addresses, phone numbers, and the names of contacts. There are also two lists of names and phone numbers from the 1988 V.P. Fair: Public Relations Committee and the V.P. Fair Committee Contacts. Solicitation letters sent by planners to organizations that either promoted Earth Day 1990 or expressed conservationist goals are part of the exhibitors file, along with a few exhibit proposals and informational packets. There are many press releases about the event, most of which are undated, and also memos and notes concerning a news conference and a meeting with St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff coordinated by St. Louis public relations firm Fleishman Hillard, Inc.

While Earth Day 1990 took place in one weekend, there were several other environmental events in the St. Louis region scheduled from February through April. The St. Louis Artists Coalition hosted a special juried exhibition entitled RSVP, Earth. The National Park Service organized a nationwide event called March for Parks. The St. Louis march took place at the St. Louis Arch. There were also several events planned for the Earth Day 1990 weekend in Forest Park which included Drum Beat and rattle making workshops to highlight Native American culture, and the All Species Parade, sponsored by the St. Louis Zoo and RiverFaces. The parade took place on both Saturday and Sunday during the Earth Day 1990 celebration but included workshops on mask making and costume building prior to the event.

For the 1996 Earth Day celebration, Ponzi coordinated the All Species Parade. The file contains a letter of thanks from the director, Jerry Klamon, to Dale Dufer and a program of events held at Tower Grove Park and the Missouri Botanical Garden on April 20-21, 1996.