Pierre Mounier (PM) rolled up his sleeves and headed to a plant nursery with Para la Naturaleza to spend his Day of Giving contributing to conservation efforts in Puerto Rico. Through hauling, planting, and greenhouse prep, he played a role in reforesting his island.
AC: What organization or local cause did you volunteer for?
PM: I volunteered for an organization called “Para la Naturaleza” which means in Spanish “For Nature.” They focus of planting trees, preserving wildlife species & habitats, among similar projects.
AC: Can you please provide an overview of their mission?
PM: The organization has a clear focus on Nature. Their mission is found on their website: “For Nature brings together all people who seek a sustainable future for Puerto Rico, where our children can grow up in habitable cities, swim in rivers of crystal-clear water and feed on the fruits of our land. We facilitate transformative experiences in nature. We conserve land of high ecological value. We encourage the taking of responsibility for our natural resources and promote public policy for their protection. With more than forty years working together with other organizations for the protection of nature in our islands, we have identified a common goal for all Puerto Ricans committed to conservation.”
AC: Was this your first time volunteering for this organization or cause? Please elaborate.
PM: No, I had done previous work for them back in December 29th 2023 by cleaning up the beach (That was one of the best days of my life).
AC: Where there any requirements for this type of volunteerism?
PM: The activity required us to arrive to Fajardo, P.R. and pretty early too: at 6:30AM AST my time, which is 5:30AM EST. For context, Fajardo is a 50 min drive from my apartment. We had to be above the legal age and sign a responsibility waiver. The volunteer work required fairly good physical condition. They recommended tennis shoes and comfortable clothing. They provided us with the gloves, shovels, and small plastic stools.
AC: Why did you choose to volunteer here for your Day of Giving?
PM: It was a good opportunity for me to get in touch with nature and get some Vitamin D, plus I needed the exercise. Also, learning about plants is pretty cool and the Event Organizer was very knowledgeable. It was a bit of a journey to get there, but I managed to pull through the work.
AC: Can you tell us about your volunteer experience? What did you do? Did your time volunteering meet your expectations?
PM: So I went to what’s called a “Vivero,” which is Spanish, and it roughly translates to: Plant-Nursery, which also acted as a kind of Open-Vivarium. We got to meet some people like Eric who was the person in charge of the event; he gave us a tour of the “Vivero,” taught us neat info about certain species of seeds & fruits, some types of plants like the 4 species of mangrove trees in Puerto Rico, and how they maintained their plants every day.
The first task required us to dig up dirt from a mound and put it in small, organic, biodegradable bags. It was important to filter out all the rocks and wood from the shovel scoops. It was also crucial to not leave the bags with any wrinkles/space and to fill them with as much dirt as possible and keep them all compact. The Plant-Nursery’s yearly requirement is 20,000, and we did about 200 that day, which is 1%! I’d say we did a decently good job. We were doing that for a few hours.
The second task required us to take those bags and transport them to one of the greenhouses and to place them vertically and next to each other. Aligning the 12 bags correctly in each row was the goal of that task. We spent a little over an hour doing this.
The third task was to move some of the “Cariaquillo” plants (Lantanas) outside of the greenhouse to the designated area of growth. All hands were on deck, and this was the hardest job of the day for sure, since the plants were wet and the soil in the bags was moist and heavy. Each weighed like 12 pounds. We spent several hours doing this.
The last task was having us clean up. This required us to: sweep the greenhouse clean with a broom, clean the shovels & gloves, and spray the wagons with a hose. This took us roughly 30 minutes to complete.
Overall, I would say it met my expectations. Even though there were some mosquitoes and bugs around, and even though it rained a bit and that delayed our work, it was nice for the plants.
AC: What would you like to share to encourage others to volunteer their time and energy locally?
PM: I think everyone should be using the Day of Giving every single year, you have nothing to lose and so much to gain. Helping the communities and organizations that you like and support is a good thing for the mind and spirit.
AC: Is there anything else that you would like to share about your experience?
PM: I’m glad that I came prepared to work. I was a bit in theme with my Bulbasaur hat (Grass-Type Pokémon) and I was able to talk to a few people about my job. You can actually see that I brought my Activus Connect backpack, heh. The event organizers were very kind and serviceable. They gave us food, snacks, coffee, and beverages to recharge. We got a nice tour of the place and learned a lot about plants and nature. We did some stretching exercises. There were fun little games like having the men compete against the women on who did their tasks faster (we guys won by the way, LOL). All in all, it was a lot of work, but it was also fun! I really liked the people I met and the teamwork that was created was awesome too. There were some funny personalities and a few fathers with their sons. I thought about my dad when doing the activity, he would have loved doing this type of work for Puerto Rico and we would have bonded for sure; he’s still alive, no worries, heheh! The best thing I would say was getting good exercise, absorbing that necessary sunlight, and breathing in that fresh air.
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Pierre’s story is a testament to the impact of environmental volunteering. With sweat, teamwork, and even a Pokémon hat, he helped nurture the future. To explore more stories like Pierre’s, visit the Inspiring Forward collection.