Cabrini hosted events for Green Week from Oct. 4 to Oct. 8. Green week is a week of activities for students and faculty to get together and learn about the environment around us. The events were hosted by Dr. Ray Ward, director of the Wolfington Center, along with the help of Cabrini’s green team.
“We wanted to raise awareness about environmental issues for our students, faculty and staff,” Ward said.
“It’s kind of a week where it gets some people out there and working for our local environment, as well as the environment on a larger scale,” Jack Letterio, president of the green team and graphic design major, said.
Our environment has been presently affected by climate change. Climate change is where temperature and weather patterns are humanly impacted by overpopulation, burning fossil fuels, pollution and deforestation. Weather events such as flooding, hurricanes and snowstorms have occurred more frequently and intensely in recent years. Glaciers in polar regions are melting rapidly, sea levels are rising and ocean temperatures are getting warmers, making most regions on Earth dangerous for people to live and forcing them to flee to safer areas.
According to National Geographic, the burning of fossil fuels, known as greenhouse gases, are being released into the Earth’s atmosphere, trapping heat in the sun’s rays inside the atmosphere and causing the Earth’s temperature to rise.
“A lot of things that we’re doing for Green week, the events, can stick around and be permanent things,” Jemmy Medina-Raya, Next Steps AmeriCorps team leader and criminology graduate student, said. “So, whether it’d be the recovery of meals in the cafeteria, whether it’d be simply as having conversations. I know the green team has been starting back up since COVID, so that’s a way to inspire people on doing something about the environment. Hopefully, the green team can take these initiatives and make them long-term.”
Daisy Rodriguez, the administrative assistant of the Wolfington Center, said, “I just hope these events light a passion in people to continue to do environmental-friendly things, such as planting a tree or not letting their food go to waste.”
Ward explains how the Wolfington Center hosts these theme weeks to represent many demographics to spark that inspiration for people. For instance, one of the events hosted during green week was a mass for St. Francis, the Catholic patron saint of animals and the environment, to help people feel connected with their faiths and the environment.
“St. Francis saw the value the environment and animals brought to our earth,” Rodriguez said. “So we’re hoping with this event it informs the audiences what he was passionate about. All the events have specific meanings.”
“Each event is focused on bringing different issues to life, related to environmentalism,” Letterio said.
Most of all, Ward talks about how he believes Cabrini’s community will strengthen through participation in Green week’s events.
“The actual, physical space of Cabrini is one of our greatest gifts,” Ward said. “We weren’t able to enjoy that properly last year due to COVID-19. Now that we’re back on campus, this week is really giving people the opportunity to join together as a community to care for the physical space of our shared environment. I think it’s going to be a great way to remind people of the beauty of our campus but also the beauty of our community.”
“I think this is a good way to bring people to do things together, especially getting back from this COVID-virtual life,” Medina-Raya said. “I think it’s a good way to get people to come out and realize that there are things that are happening on campus that are in-person and there are ways to get involved and to make a difference and take these initiatives seriously and hopefully be able to stick with them for a long-term effect.”
Now that there are more in-person events happening on campus, participating in Green week is one of the ways to help students, faculty, and staff get together. Joining the green team is most certainly one of the ways to get involved, particularly in environmentalism. Currently, they are looking for members, so if you are interested, sign up to join the green team!
Ward said, “If the lightbulb goes off if they care about these environmental issues, there’s a lot of advocacy work that needs to be done. Climate change is a huge issue facing all of us. There’s a lot of things that we can do in turns of advocacy.”
