An international spotlight will focus on the City Of Greenville on Thursday, March 22, as River Park North hosts the launch event for the EarthEcho Water Challenge, beginning at 9 a.m. The launch is part of the United Nations World Water Day, and joins Philippe Cousteau, Jr., nonprofit EarthEcho International, and more than 1.5 million citizens in 143 countries conserving and protecting water resources around the globe.

In conjunction with this launch event, River Park North will also host the grand opening and ribbon cutting at noon for the Love A Sea Turtle STEAM Lab. The lab, located in the Walter L. Stasavich Science and Nature Center, focuses on science, technology, engineering, arts and math. The lab features the only permanent EarthEcho water testing lab site in the country.

Activities throughout the day will combine the technology available in the state-of-the-art lab and the citizen science involved in the Challenge. One hundred A.G. Cox eighth-graders will participate in the day of citizen science and be on hand to celebrate the opening of the new lab. In the morning, students will take part in water quality testing in the lakes and river at the park and bring their water samples into the lab to process through the EarthEcho field testing station. In the afternoon, the students will shift to recreation areas of the park. Students will have the opportunity to kayak, bike and hike across River Park North

The Love A Sea Turtle STEAM Lab will remain open until 1 p.m. for guests to tour. For more information about World Water Day or the Love a Sea Turtle STEAM Lab, call Christopher Horrigan at (252) 329-4562.