Wensie promises to serve only vegetarian dishes at a dinner party. Paulina Aquilina promises to wash all clothes in cold water, bring her own reusable shopping bags to the store and attend more local farmer’s markets for fresh, local produce. Tracey Baty promises to eliminate the use of pesticides and toxic cleaning products.

And collectively, about 96 million (and counting) of their new-found Internet friends have promised to commit similar acts of green all around the world.

With Earth Day officially happening Friday, April 22, the Earth Day Network is full bore into a successful online campaign (www.earthday.org) to encourage people (like Wensie, Aquilina and Baty) around to jump in, pledge to do at least one thing to help save the planet and organize acts and events around the collective theme that, hey, we all have to live here – let’s all make it better. The goal is to reach one billion acts of green. While some pledges are simple (“I will take shorter showers,” writes Rhilal94) some require a bit more advance planning (“I will try to reduce vehicle use, walk more and reduce consumption of energy,” writes Rajkumar). Now that takes some effort.

While the weekend of April 16 was a big one for local Earth Day events – Citizens for Sustainable Marina took to Locke-Paddon Wetland Park for its annual park beautification and event day, and Return of the Natives coordinated a restoration effort at Salinas’ Natividad Creek Park – there are still a number of things to do and places to go. Check out the list below, and visit www.sustainablemontereycounty.org for even more events.

If you find yourself on the road during Earth Day weekend, check out www.earthday.org for a variety of events happening throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California as well.

Mix it Up

The Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Salinas Jaycees hold an Earth Day bash at McShane’s Nursery and Landscape Supply. Local wines, appetizers, entertainment, garden exhibits and a silent auction including packages for a plethora of goods and services (spa days, gym boot camps, produce!) will benefit the reconstruction of the Veterans Rose Garden at Central Park. Open to the public.

5:30-7:30pm, Thursday April 21. McShane’s Nursery and Landscape Supply, 115 Monterey-Salinas Highway, Salinas. www.mcshanesnursery.com.

Seed Some Ideas

At the Marina Certified Farmers’ Market the Marina Tree and Garden Club will host its bi-annual community plant exchange (leave a plant, take a plant) and the Monterey Regional Waste Management District will lead composting and vermicomposting workshops. You can also score some seeds at a free garden seed giveaway, and CSUMB students will lead a healthy cooking demonstration.

Sunday, May 1, 10am – 2pm. Marina Village Shopping Center, 215 Reservation Rd., Marina. www.marinatreeandgarden.org.

Catch an Eco Flick

A one-night screening of Bag It, sponsored by the Blue Ocean Film Festival, will be featured at Osio Cinemas. The award-winning documentary that follows Jeb Berrier as he tries to make sense of our dependence on plastic bags. Although his quest starts small, he soon learns the problem expands past landfills and oceans, but to rivers, and ultimately human health. There will be a question and answer session after the film.

7pm, Thursday, April 21, 350 Alvarado St., Monterey. $9/general;$6.25/seniors & children; $6.75/students & military. 644-8171. www.blueoceanfilmfestival.org.

Boogie to Big Sur

Celebrate the day at the Big Sur Grange, when Big Sur Advocates for a Green Environment present a film about America’s national parks system. There also will be a free giveaway of oak seedlings and the opportunity to sign a petition to ban plastic bags. Donations accepted.

5:30pm, Friday, April 22, Big Sur Grange, Highway One and Juan Higuera Creek, Big Sur.

Sign a Petition

Various local organizations that are part of Sustainable Monterey County will collect signatures in support of a ban on single-use plastic bags.

Carmel and Carmel-by-the-Sea: 10am-4pm, Friday, April 22, Carmel-by-the – Sea Post Office, 5th St. between San Carlos and Dolores; Carmel Post Office, 3845 Via Nona Marie; Harrison Memorial Library, Ocean Ave. and Lincoln St.; Cornucopia, 26135 Carmel Rancho Blvd.

Pacific Grove: 10am-5pm, Friday April 22 and Saturday April 23, Post Office, 680 Lighthouse Ave., Trader Joe’s, 1170 Forest Ave., Grove Market, 242 Forest Ave.

Love A Parade

Students from Ord Terrace Elementary in Seaside will carry bright poppy seedlings frm the school to Havana-Soliz Park, and plant the seedlings they started from seed more than two months ago. The poppy parade, in collaboration with the city and CSUMB’s Return of the Natives, is the school’s newest project as an Ocean Guardian School. The designation, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, comes with a $3,500 grant to further the school’s watershed consciousness and conservation efforts.

12:30pm, Friday, April 22. Second graders will march from the school, 1755 LaSalle Ave., Seaside, to the park between Lincoln St. and Havana St. to plant the seedlings.

Hug a tree, And More

Hit the campus of CSUMB, where Earth Day events span an entire week. On Thursday, April 21, the campus will celebrate the first anniversary of the planting of the university’s “Peace Tree,” hold a farmer’s market on the main quad and round out a full day with a reggae fest at the Black Box Cabaret, featuring the aptly named Mystic Roots.

10am-midnight, Thursday, April 21 , various locations throughout the CSUMB campus. www.csumb.edu/news/2011/apr/15/earth-csumb.