#2977: Everglades park project teaches environmentalism (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:nozier@tradewind.net

Published Thursday, March 16, 2000, in the Miami Herald 
 Everglades park project teaches
environmentalism                                      
 HELENE DUDLEY  For the Herald 

 Fifty Little Haiti residents and chaperons and ten children on the
waiting list for Big Brothers/Big Sisters were recently treated to an
outing at Everglades National Park. The event was co-sponsored by
Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida, Operation Green Leaves
and Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Peace Corps group members Joy Klein, Patty
Cunningham Pascatore and Brian Rapoza served as guides, providing basic
information about the Everglades ecosystem and environmental concerns,
and identifying various types of wildlife. For many of the children and
their parents, it was their first trip to the national park.
 Green Leaves president Nadine Patrice has collaborated with Klein over
the past five years to sponsor various environmental programs. Green
Leaves was founded in 1991 by a group of Haitians and Americans to save
the island from ecological and environmental peril. By getting Haitians
in Miami actively involved in environmental programs, such as community
cleanups and tree plantings, she heightens their awareness of the
 issue and enlists their help in raising resources to reforest Haiti's
eroding hillsides. Through its committee in Haiti, Green Leaves is now
active in 110 schools. In January, Patrice took participants from Little
Haiti and Perrine to the Everglades to heighten their awareness and
strengthen their commitment to protecting the environment.
 Everglades National Park arranged for park admission for the group.
Peace Corps members prepared picnic lunches for the participants using
food donated by Publix.
 The Returned Peace Corps Volunteers is a nonprofit organization whose
 members have served as volunteers in various parts of the world over
the past 40 years. Many now provide service in their home communities by
participating in highway and park cleanups, helping with violence
prevention programs in the public schools, raising money to support
projects of current Peace Corps volunteers and shipping surplus books to
English education programs around the world.

 For more information on Operation Green Leaves, contact Nadine Patrice
at P.O. Box 63454, Coral Gables, FL 33114; call 305-644-9000, or log on
at www.oglhaiti.com

 For more information about Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South
Florida, call president Greg Zell at 305-379-5579, or send an e-mail
message to: RPCVSF@aol.com