By The Star Staff
Activities for Earth Week, which begins today with World Mother Earth Day and continues through next Sunday, will get underway in Cayey on Tuesday with a poetry reading by young people.
“It is a very important date, set by the United Nations, to educate all populations about global warming, pollution and the importance of biodiversity conservation,” Cayey Mayor Rolando Ortiz Velázquez said on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the Casa del Cuento y de la Historia Cayeyana Ramón “Moncho” Gómez in Cayey will hold the first municipal youth poetry contest, titled “My Commitment to the Environment,” starting at 9 a.m.
Ortiz Velázquez generated the initiative to develop poetry and literature as a teen activity, while integrating environmental issues.
The evaluation committee is composed of Rosalina Alvarado Rodríguez, representing Cayey residents, Lyda M. Rivera Rivera, president of the municipal legislature, and Milagros Fernández Hernández, a retired Spanish teacher, poet and writer. Together, they work with students in grades nine through 12.
Meanwhile, the Benigno Fernández García Middle School’s beautification and decoration project was successfully completed. The students worked together with their teachers in the improvement of their school through painting and planting, in conjunction with the municipality’s School Today program.
“We are continuing with the reforestation initiative that began about 15 years ago, through which we have managed to plant about 5,000 trees throughout the city,” the mayor added.
Cayey has a successful municipal nursery, where trees are constantly reproduced with seeds from the same trees that have already been planted and have reached maturity.
“There is an interesting issue, and that is that in a pod there are more than 1,000 seeds,” Ortiz Velázquez said. “And what is known as the native oak is a species that in addition to being embellished with its pink flowers, is visually very pleasing and is more resistant to hurricane winds than other species.”
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