Are you dining out by candlelight -- either at home or a participating restaurant-- attending a candlelight concert, playing a board game at home with the family, camping out in the living room with a flashlight, or enjoying a party on the patio deck with family and friends?

Earth Hour began last year in Sydney, Australia, where lights were turned off for one hour to recognize global warming.

The effort last March in Sydney reduced the city's energy consumption by 10.2 per cent for the hour, the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road for an entire year -- and the world took notice. Earth Hour 2008 was born.

It is a global event this year with towns and cities around the world observing an hour of lights out to raise awareness of global climate change.

Oakville is among the many communities registered to participate and many events -- private and public -- are planned for Earth Hour.

We want to make Earth Hour in Oakville a memorable event, but, there are too many events for our photographers to cover everything in 60 minutes.

So we are turning to our readers for help.

We would like you to share your Earth Hour experience by sending a picture of your activity to The Oakville Beaver.

Whether you are attending one of the many community events planned in Oakville for Earth Hour, or just enjoying a quiet moment with your family, we would like you to share your experience with our readers.

A few of the pictures will be published in the Wed. April 2 Oakville Beaver, but more importantly our photographers will use our readers' submissions to create a memorable slide show of Earth Hour in Oakville on our website.

In addition to submitting pictures of family and community activities, we are looking before and after photos of streetscapes in Oakville.We are also asking local photographers to send in panoramic landscape shots of Oakville during Earth Hour.

Send all photos in high-resolution jpeg format (300 dpi recommended) by email to editor@oakvillebeaver.com with Earth Hour in the subject line.

Don't forget to include the name of the photographer, along with details about the picture including who is in the picture and where it was taken.

Deadline for submissions is 9 a.m. Monday, March 31.

For more information on Earth Hour, or to join the growing list of residents, schools and businesses in Oakville that have signed up for Earth Hour log onto www.oakville.ca/earthhour.htm.