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The ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Community celebrated Earth Day on Wednesday, April 20 with a fair held in Westgate Circle. The fair, which focused on sustainability, featured 10 local organizations, businesses and ºÚÁÏÉçÇø student organizations who shared various ways to care for the environment.

At the conclusion of the event, ºÚÁÏÉçÇø President Dr. Thomas M. Evans accepted the Silver Certification from the City of San Antonio for ºÚÁÏÉçÇø’s completion of the ReWorksSA program. This certification is a first step on ºÚÁÏÉçÇø’s commitment to the Laudato Sí Action Platform, which implements in Catholic institutions Pope Francis’s call toward sustainability in the spirit of integral ecology.

The chair of the Sustainability Advisory Board, Dr. Ben Miele, said overall, the event “was a rousing success and signals a bright future for sustainability at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø, especially since it displays the enthusiasm among students, faculty, and staff for more robust investment in sustainability, notably with regard to the overlap between environmental justice and social justice.”

“It was important for me to volunteer at the event because if I want to see a greener world where people care about the environment, I believe I have to be part of that change”, noted Andrea Jackson-Gomez, a student in Ecocriticism this semester. “And a good way to do it is by stepping out of my comfort zone and inviting my friends to do the same. I hope that people in my booth learned that taking care of a plant is a little challenging, but it is worth it. And that ºÚÁÏÉçÇø is doing things to make the school a more sustainable place." 

Dr. Lourdes Fortepiani, professor in the Rosenberg School of Optometry, and Mauro Medina, ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Facilities, were presented the William Mulcahy Awards for Ecological Stewardship. This award was created in 2007 in recognition of grounds superintendent Bill Mulcahy’s leadership in ecological conservation and care of the land at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø. Each year, nominations are submitted to the Earth Month Committee, which selects two nominees to receive this award, one faculty member and one staff member.

Fortepiani was instrumental in getting the Sustainability Studies concentration up and running and in organizing the first Faculty Orientation Workshop for the Sustainability Studies concentration, while Medina has been a key player in helping revive the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø community garden after recent inclement weather.

Booths at the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Earth Fair:

• Nutrition at ºÚÁÏÉçÇø
• Rooted Vegan Cuisine
• Pure Aloha Bath and Beauty
• Headwaters at Incarnate Word, Inc.
• Sustainability Education Committee - Educational Display
• ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Sustain
• Rosenberg School of Optometry
• Black Llama
• iHouse
• Nutrition and Dietetics Society

The Earth Day celebration is important to the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø community as it encompasses care of Creation and contributes to promoting the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Mission among students and the broader San Antonio community.