Going Green is Harder than it Looks

**Editor's Note: This blog was written by UP Staff Writer David Shreve.

In an attempt for my first time to ever get involved in the national Earth Day celebration, I thought it would be a good idea to look no further than the events planned at the Boca FAU campus. There were many interesting activities to choose from: free burritos from Moe’s for using public transport, a campus-wide clean-up sponsored by Center for Civic Engagement and Service and a lecture from FAU's Dining Services on purchasing animal abuse free products. I can’t vouch for the quality of any of these events, though, because I chose to attend a tree planting ceremony sponsored by FAU Housing.

Like any other pseudo-environmentalist college student attempting to give a damn about global warming, I showed up ready to work in an organic green T-shirt and gardening gloves. The event, held in the Butterfly Gardens near Heritage Park Towers, was scheduled to follow with an ice-cream social combined with a lecture on tips to live more green.

I rode up to the tree planting event on my eco-friendly bicycle ten minutes before it began. With my pen and pad in my hand, I was ready to give the Housing Department their publicity for giving back to the campus and plant a tree or two myself. I originally showed up alone, but was joined a few minutes later by fellow student accounting major, Paul Baglio. The two of us stood around for a few minutes, talked about finals and our attempts at making our lives more eco-friendly, and waited for the Housing crew to arrive.

After 20 minutes of standing around, we began to question ourselves; maybe we were in the wrong place or had the times mixed up. Surely Housing couldn’t have forgotten about their own event.

Well, they did.

Whether this was an honest mistake, lack of planning, or simply assuming nobody would show, my pen and pad would now serve a new purpose: find out why there were only two students, no Housing, and no trees to plant. During that time though, nobody working for Housing in any of the surrounding dorms had the slightest idea what I was talking about. Even at the 7:00 p.m. ice-cream social, hosted by Village Apartment employees, Adrienne Patmythes and Nicolle Gale, which did in fact take place, but without the previously informed follow-up lecture on living green. They didn’t know there was any plan to plant a tree.

In a phone conversation with Larry Faerman, Assistant Director of Housing, he said that Housing Secretary Patricia Rossi was responsible for the event. Faerman also said that although he did not oversee the event, he was told by Rossi that the event began at Indian Rivers Tower (not as advertised) and eventually moved over to the Butterfly Gardens near Heritage Park Towers around 6:20 p.m. - 20 minutes later than scheduled. All attempts to contact Rossi have been unsuccessful and resulted in an endlessly ringing phone line.

“It’s really a shame that school employees cannot follow through with their own philanthropy events,” said Baglio. “Maybe we can hope for better next year.”

If you missed out on this Earth Day celebration, voice your concerns by calling Patricia Rossi at (561) 297- 5001.