Care of Creation

National Day of Service (By: Julianna M. Klose, barrynews@mail.barry.edu):  

More than 200 Barry volunteers came out Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009, for a national day of service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. Barry’s volunteers – students, faculty and staff – led service efforts in Overtown and Liberty City, landscaping a housing facility and painting and landscaping one of the nation’s oldest public housing communities.

The majority helped at the Town Park Village condos in Overtown, pushing forward the next step in the housing development’s revival. Students shoveled mulch, dug holes, planted and watered, building an environmentally sustainable landscape for the community, made up of 100 percent native Floridian greenery. Others served at a project headed up by Hands on Miami, painting and planting at Liberty Square in Liberty City.

Both projects were part of larger initiatives being organized in Miami-Dade County, and nationwide, to honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy by participating in a day of service. More than 2,000 volunteers came out throughout the county to participate in such projects, with existing community organizations heading up each one. Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) through AmeriCorps headed up the Town Park Village landscaping.

The service component of Martin Luther King Day was designated by Congress in 1994, inspired by King’s words “everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” It is the sixth year Barry University has participated in the Martin Luther King Day challenge, although the event received renewed attention this year with President Obama’s call to service leading up to his Jan. 20th Inauguration.

Global Warming Conference:  On Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008, Barry University hosted  “Global Warming, What Can Be Done?”.  This one-day conference explored several topics on the issue of global warming including “Natural Disaster: Inevitable or Preventable?” and “Diminishing Green Space in Miami/Florida and climate change.”

The conference featured presentations and workshops by Barry faculty, guest speakers, and environmental organizations. Participants were exposed to a series of interdisciplinary activities, lectures and workshops geared toward helping them understand the critical role global warming will play in the on-going evolution of the planet.

Feature guest speakers were Bill McKibben, author of the acclaimed book, The End of Nature, and Nadine Patrice, founder executive director of Operation Green Leaves, a non-profit environmental organization based in Miami. Operation Green Leaves is dedicated to the environmental education of the global Haitian community and the reforestation of the island nation of Haiti. Patrice delivered the luncheon keynote, speaking about Haiti’s environmental tragedy and efforts to save the island from further ecological and environmental devastation. McKibben gave the evening keynote address, addressing climate change and our involvement with the natural world. McKibben’s work, End of Nature, was the 2008 Barry common reader for all first-year students.

This one-day conference was free and open to the public; it was co-sponsored by Barry University and the Center for Earth Jurisprudence.