Ecological Projects
From its beginnings, the institution was aware of the importance of being responsible with the environment. Therefore, it developed reforestation projects with its first generations which lasted for more than 30 years. When it moved to its new campus, an endless number of possibilities opened to develop ecological projects far beyond reforestation. Among reforested places by students throughout these years are: Bosque de la Hoja, Monte de la Cruz, several places in Santo Domingo, Heredia, including the Basilica park, the city’s park, surrounding of Salón Parroquial Padre Antonio Sobrino, the Gardens near Rosario Church, Liceo de Santo Domingo de Heredia, areas around the road from Guacalillo to San Miguel, Santo Domingo, area around the nursing home. The birthplace of Pará River was reforested because vegetation around springs and river banks improve their development and flow. Places reforested by our students are too many to be mentioned.
The institution has been widely recognized for its efforts to help Nature. It has received a large number of thankful notes, an acknowledgement from Heredia Municipality, a silver medal and the Guayacán de Oro prize, from the Ministry of Environment and Energy in 1996. In 2009, it received the Ecological Blue Flag with three stars, which we are very proud of and expect to reach every year.
We are currently developing several projects. Some of them have been working from 2 to 5 years and consider them permanent projects. We are always looking for new ideas to be enforced.
Our permanent projects include:
• Paper, plastic, and metal recycling. The institution is a collect center that offers its services to staff and students’ homes, as well to the neighbors who want to use this service.
• Recycling of organize waste from the forest, botanic garden and green areas from campus. It is processed for its decomposition and then gets to the last stage where Californian red worms turn it into organic fertilizer that is used at school.
• An open butterfly farm which is about to expand to all corridors through plants that attract several species.
• An orchid nursery intended to recover species in the verge of extinction to populate the institution’s forest and then introduce them in the zone.
We are working on several projects with the goal to turn them into part of our regular work. This institution has been responsible with nature many years before being “ecological responsible” became a relevant worldwide policy.
St. Jude School believes the best legacy for our children is love, education, and a planet where they can live.