RE LOG - Spring 2017

SPRING 2017 Ransom Everglades LOG 31 MAST Academy Ransom Everglades allows Miami-Dade County’s MAST Academy to utilize its gymnasium for volleyball and basketball practices and games. RE crew athletes travel to MAST to use its waterfront facilities for training. Other Sports Programming • Lacrossing Borders is a lacrosse camp for Coconut Grove youth on RE’s turf playing fields, founded by a current student • S.C.O.R.E. is a program where RE students host a soccer program for children with autism Environmental Efforts Mangrove Program Ransom Everglades seniors plant approximately 700 mangrove seedlings on Virginia Key during their annual Senior Service Day with the goal of helping to restore the coastline. The resiliency effort has become an annual participatory eco-art project. In the fall, students collect mangrove propagules that fall into the water but have nowhere to take root because of sea walls and other barriers to the coastline. The propagules are placed in clear, water-filled cups that have been displayed in rows on the exterior of the Ransom Everglades Visual Arts Building. As the year goes on, the propagules grow into seedlings that can be re-planted. Nearly every senior participates, using hand trowels and other tools to assist. Million Orchid Project Environmental Science classes participated in The Million Orchid Project on Biscayne Bay’s Island E last spring. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden asked local schools to help it reintroduce native orchids into South Florida’s urban landscapes. Fairchild’s lab supplied RE with tiny, baby native orchids to raise in the lab, and students tended to the flowers before re-planting them in a natural environment. Ransom Everglades students planted orchids on acacias, choosing them because of their dense crown to provide shelter and humidity for the young plants. They also cleaned up the boat trash they encountered around the perimeter of the island before heading back to campus. Local Coastal Cleanups • Bill Baggs State Park • Island E on Biscayne Bay Ransom Everglades offers the pool for swimming lessons for underserved children from throughout Miami. Without access to the pool and the free swimming lessons offered there, many Miamians might never learn how to swim. Ansin Aquatic Center Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue utilizes the Ansin Aquatic Center for its fire and rescue training throughout the year. The Orange Bowl, Paralympic swimmers and Special Olympians also use the center’s 50-meter competition pool.