Ecological Comradery Amongst Us Salesians

By Novice Paul Hotovy

In the Community Plan of Life in the Richmond, CA community, one of our goals is to "strive to create a visibly poor lifestyle, eliminating waste, and making ourselves available for domestic and community services." The Rector Major’s post-GC28 guidelines inspired our community to try to be more eco-friendly. We have done this in a number of ways. For example, we vigilantly consume leftovers so no food is thrown away. We also recycle and compost regularly and recently have taken a few more ambitious strides. Under the managerial prowess of Novice Christopher Green (the only novice with actual farming know-how), we have constructed a garden filled with corn, green beans, squash, tomatoes, and even kale, to just name a few. This garden was planted at the beginning of April and is already showing promising signs. Additionally, we planted two pear trees near the Salesian cemetery. Hopefully, these pear trees will produce fruit that can be enjoyed by the SDBs and shared with the school community. For me, the garden and the pear trees are a great way to try and become more self-sufficient. This means we do not need to buy as much from the store, which will reduce plastic packaging and allow our community to save money. It might also inspire some students to take up gardening. And these projects build comradery amongst us Salesians.