I hope you can make part of the Earth Day event planned for Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Moody Medical Library Plaza. If you’ve been, you know what a neat event it is and will likely not miss it. It you haven’t been, it’s a chance to get out, hopefully enjoy some of the same great weather we had today, grab a quick free bite to eat, and learn a bunch of stuff about great initiatives in place at UTMB and in the community. You can pick up a free tree or herb, troll for goodies at the swap shop, laugh and be amazed during the recycle style show and art contest, enjoy the kids running around and listen to a live band. There’s a great looking shirt this year, with a winning design drawn and colored by an employee’s daughter.
I’ve had a theme this week about people working hard behind the scenes. Few good things ever “just happen.” This is one of those events that takes an army of volunteers to pull off, led and coordinated by folks like Ken Steblein, Diana Davison, Gene Curry, Richard Holmes, John Lahair, Jay Lefebrvre, Susan Milligan, Curtis Sanchez, Roger Stone, Lewis Cantrell, Donna Batson, Carl Dolezal, Heidi Lutz, Bob Scott, Enzo Garetto, Shirley Hilton, Todd Perry, Giselle Torres and many others. Planning on Friday’s event started this past January. All we have to do is show up and enjoy.
Why does it matter? Consider this single tidbit culled from the signature line of one of the individuals named above: In FY 2006, UTMB recycled more than 800 tons of paper and cardboard, and in the process “saved” 13,685 trees. At a time when we all feel the sting from rising fuel and energy costs and hear so much about global warming, think of the impact of the forest of trees we left in the ground. I’ll see you there…