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Martin Luther King Jr. Day Sparks A Day Of Service At FIU

Javier Diaz pulls a root from the ground of the invasive plant species Scaevola taccada, or beach cabbage. The yank releases a cloud of dirt in the humid air and sends out a leafy scent that smells like a freshly cut lawn. Sweat drips from Diaz’s face. 

“It’s hard work,” Diaz says as he laughs. “The reason we take on these big bulks of scaevola is because it’s putting a lot of pressure on the red mangroves.”

Diaz is one of more than 100 students who volunteered early Saturday morning as part of Florida International University’s day of service. The students wore gray T-shirts with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s face and the quote: “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.” 

The day was dedicated in honor of the legacy of one of America’s most influential civil rights activists. FIU was just one of a number of organizations that commemorated the holiday by serving the community.

Mangrove restoration helps filter the water that flows through South Florida and protects coastal communities, but the Scaevola prevents the mangroves from naturally moving inland as sea levels rise.

“If you go in there right now [Scaevola bush] it’s like a maze. There’s branches everywhere,” said Diaz, a marine biology major. “But by taking out these bulks of Scaevola, it also allows us to clean and pick up trash near the bay.” 

As part of FIU’s day of service, environmental interns helped coordinate a number of projects that helped refurbish FIU’s Biscayne Bay campus. Erika Somoza, a marine biology major, helps maintain some of the campus butterfly gardens. Her main concern was planting enough Coontie plants, which attract the rare Atala butterfly. 

“I’m such a nerd, whenever I see this plant I check for seeds so we can plant them,” Somoza said. 

The seeds have a fleshy red layer on top, so Somoza instructed the volunteers to remove the layer so the seeds can dry and eventually become the host plant for Atala butterflies. 

On Saturday, Nicholas Ogle, the environmental coordinator for FIU’s School of Environment, Art and Society, provided the science behind the community service. 

He says students are willing to volunteer once they find a cause they believe in. 

“Good fish populations, healthy wetlands, all these things benefit all of us. So they get in there, they get their feet wet. Our students never cease to amaze me in what they’re willing to do,” Ogle said. 

Ashley Onuoha is a nursing major at FIU. She picked up trash that got washed up on the shoreline of Biscayne Bay. 

“I'm finding a lot of paper, plastic bottles and bottle caps. This all looked colorful before, but with trash, which isn’t good,” Onuoha said. 

Some students got their feet wet to collect trash on the far edge of the mangroves. Anais Iglesias, a pre-med student, was one of them. 

She helped a group of five other students pull out washed up floaties and large plastic buckets. 

“We found a lot of different things, so for me this has taught me about the importance of really reaching out to the community and raising awareness about littering,” Iglesias said. 

Melanie Morales, a psychology major, connects this work to the community activism Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered for. 



“Because he was such a social activist against racism and such, he was trying to get people to do as much as they can to help his cause. So this sort of ties in to it because even though we’re just basically picking out a lot of plants, it will mean a lot to our environment,” Morales said. 

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