The Sisters of Providence from St. Mary-of-the-Woods, IN sponsor the White Violet Center located on their beautiful campus.  Though this article relates what the Center did for Earth Day, they are constantly providing resources for ecology and justice.  Kudos to them for their ministry!

“When the staff and interns of the White Violet Center for Eco-Justice, a sponsored ministry of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, gathered for planning the 2021 Earth Day celebration, they put on their thinking caps and thought outside the (litter)box. [That reference is for Sage and Hazel, the resident felines in the White Violet Center educational center.]

Knowing that Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb would still be limiting gatherings of persons by April 22, when we celebrated Earth Day in 2021, the planners came up with the concept of introducing a different educational component of restoring our Earth each week of the month of April.

In collaboration with a local television station that offered to do Facebook Live videos each Monday, each week we released a different theme and drew the community to our social media and website for activities, blogs and resources. The group begin the month of April by announcing the overall plan and followed with the second themed week of “Land and animals.” The third week of the month was themed “Food and Farming,” and the fourth week was themed “Care for our Common Home Climate Change.” The final week of the month was themed “Community” and highlighted our network of collaborating organizations.

During each week, the planners scheduled blogs, conducted children’s activities, organized a call to action and more.

The farm animals theme included the informational blog post entitled, “How land, animals, plants and poop are all connected” by John-Michael Elmore, garden manager of the White Violet Center for Eco-Justice. John-Michael’s article begins, “It all starts when our alpacas lift their tails,” and continues with his amusing yet understandable explanation of how our choices in the types of food we eat and the way in which we manufacture and package them impact the Earth and our health and well-being.

In addition, an entire new web page on our website was created and dedicated to Earth Day Every Day activities and more.”

Who doesn’t enjoy those cute alpacas and how they are connected to us and all creation.  As many of you know, you can purchase homemade gifts from the White Violet Center and other beautiful gifts from the Linden Leaf store.  Visit Linden Leaf.com or White Violet.org for more information.

Barbara McMullen, CDP