Photo credit: Oscar Lin/The Beacon

Holly McCoach/Staff Writer

For those who often frequent the Nature Preserve, peel your eyes for two new additions to the entrance of the area.

The Brothers of the Iota Omicron chapter of Theta Chi planted two Red Maple trees at the entrance of the FIU Nature Preserve as a gesture of appreciation to the University. From 9 AM to noon last Friday, the Brothers spent their time in the Florida heat clearing the space of weeds and shrubs, shoveling, and moving the heavy trees into place.

Donned with the names Arthur and Frederick to represent the founders of Theta Chi, the trees were destined to be planted since this idea was formed about two years ago by David Tacoronte, the old Philanthropy Chair.

“It was [Tacoronte’s] idea. He since graduated, but I was kind of his right-hand man and once he graduated I kind of took it upon myself to go ahead and finish this project. It’s something that has been in the works for a couple of years now. I’m just really glad at this point to be able to get it done,” said Luis Cabrera, senior English major and Community Service Chair of Iota Omicron.

Theta Chi is a social Greek fraternity and prides itself on extending a helping hand and reaching out to the community. As a result, not only is Iota Omicron planting two Red Maples to show their support, but they are helping to publicize the Nature Preserve as well.

Iota Omicron chose two Red Maple trees because the trees will blossom with red leaves in the fall. Since Theta Chi’s colors are military red and white, the red leaves will symbolize the fraternity, and the chapter will have a stamp on the trees.

“In the beginning of fall they are actually going to put plaques in front of all the different types of trees that are within the Nature Preserve and when they do that there’s also going to be one that is going to go in front of the Red Maple Trees, Arthur and Frederick, that is going to say ‘Donated by Theta Chi,’” said Cabrera.

The event would have been impossible without the collaboration of the fraternity, The Department of Campus Life, and Ryan Vogel, FIU alumnus who works in the Office of Sustainability. The trees will prove beneficial to the entire campus as well.

“Our office is charged with decreasing the carbon footprint of the University overall. And we work with students and staff to educate everyone at FIU what role they can play in reducing FIU’s carbon footprint. Carbon footprint entails electricity use, water consumption, waste production, carbon production from all of the vehicles that people drive to school and work every day. And what we’re doing here today is a tree planting event. These trees will offset some of the carbon,” said Vogel.

Since Iota Omicron is often giving back to the community, they soon became highly acquainted with the Nature Preserve and the Office of Sustainability, even if they are a young fraternity on campus.

“Over the past year since their inception, they’ve been very interested in being a part of the nature preserve and they’ve had several volunteer days throughout last spring, last fall, and then this past spring. So we had that connection already and they decided that they wanted to do something a bit more so they wanted to plant some commemorative trees in honor of the founders of their fraternity,” said Vogel.

On the day of the event, Theta Chi along with students and other volunteers collected by the Nature Preserve to support Iota Omicron.

“We put together this event and we invited Theta Chi. There’s another about 30 FIU students here that are not part of the fraternity and we’re all participating in this tree planting event today,” said Vogel.

As for future events, Iota Omicron will be hosting their second philanthropy event in the fall, and their second annual Cheers for Troops event in the spring.

holly.mccoach@fiusm.com