Earth Day - Bay Day in Corpus Christi - Sustainable and Caring Day for All Ages

People, young and old from different walks of life in Corpus Christi gathered in Heritage Park for the Annual 27th Earth Day - Bay Day to share their enthusiasm and care for their various interests in God's creation.  Master naturalists, master gardeners, junior gardeners, Texas Park and Wildlife, Texas A&M professors, TAMU students from Engineering and Computer Science, teachers, and school administrators, Port of Corpus Christi Environmentalists, Sierra Club, Philips 66 energy, etc. Sustainability and Philips 66 energy? Philips 66 though was traditional energy company, it has been innovating and open to emerging energy for sustainability.  It has joined the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) market since 2021 given their contract with British Airways UK.  In the event, the 66 energy employees/volunteers were giving away native plants.

This annual event was family friendly and mobility friendly.   People learned about the birds, land, sea creatures, reptiles, and plants.  People do not have to use the single-use bottled water as the LyondellBasell gave away reusable container filled with water.  Junior naturalists were teaching the enthusiasts about composting, and planting.  There were master naturalists showing skeletons and skulls of animals from the ocean, the air, and the land. Texas Parks and Wildlife taught the crowd about the Great Horned Owl and Eastern Screech Owl.  There's a wide variety of activities for the children to have fun such as guessing a creature or a preserved object, coloring pages for the children, science explanation of carbon sequestration, etc.  A lot of people care about our world in so many ways especially in this month of Earth.  JPIC - US participated by distributing advocacy cards for sustainability with an invitation to go deeper by signing up in Laudato Si' Animator Program and the invitation to attend the local retreat "Praying with God's Creation" that will be held in Our Lady of Perpetual Help on April 18 8am - 2pm with deadline for registration on April 11.

Below are some of the pictures from the Earth Day Bay Day event.

Photos at a Glance

"The majority of people living on our planet profess to be believers. This should spur religions to dialogue among themselves for the sake of protecting nature, defending the poor, and building networks of respect and fraternity. Dialogue among the various sciences is likewise needed, since each can tend to become enclosed in its own language, while specialization leads to a certain isolation and the absolutization of its own field of knowledge. This prevents us from confronting environmental problems effectively. An open and respectful dialogue is also needed between the various ecological movements, among which ideological conflicts are not infrequently encountered. The gravity of the ecological crisis demands that we all look to the common good, embarking on a path of dialogue which demands patience, self-discipline and generosity, always keeping in mind that “realities are greater than ideas”. (Laudato Si' 201).