MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Harpaz
954-762-5244, jharpaz@hotmail.com
Florida Atlantic University Celebrates Fifth Anniversary of Adopt-A-Waterway Program
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL (February 7, 2006) - Florida Atlantic University and the Florida Atlantic Planning Society are hosting a celebration honoring five years of participation in the Adopt-A-Waterway program on Saturday, February 11. Since 2001, FAU has partnered with other community organizations to clean up the North Fork area of the New River, a waterway formerly polluted with litter and debris.
“A major feat of the Adopt-A-Waterway program has been to increase ecological awareness in our community,” said Dr. Jaap Vos, associate FAU professor and chair of the department of urban and regional planning. “People are more cognizant of the issues of the river and the surrounding community, the watercourse is far cleaner now and the future of the area shows great promise.”
Other organizations who have consistently paired with FAU to make possible this ongoing effort and celebratory event include: Broward County, The Wild Life Research Team, The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), Kids Ecology Corps, Broward Urban River Trails, Sistrunk Historical Society and The Audubon Society.
Initial funding for the Adopt-A-Waterway program was provided by the South Florida Water Management District. “Our focus is the improvement of all aspects of the North Fork area,” said Jose Lopez, lead project manager of the SFWMD Broward services center. “We believe in the environment and the contribution of the Adopt-A-Waterway to bettering the environment, so naturally we wanted to support the program’s mission and beginnings.”
The anniversary celebration will be held on Saturday, February 11 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Reverend Samuel Delevoe Park, 2520 N.W. Sixth St. in Fort Lauderdale. Waterway cleanup, participant presentations and the traditional barbeque will be included in the event’s program.
For more information, contact Maria Sanchez, FAU College of Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs assistant, at 954-762-5653 or MSANCH23@fau.edu.
- FAU -
FloridaAtlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the university serves 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses strategically located along 150 miles of Florida's southeastern coastline. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university, with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts eight colleges - the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, and the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering & Computer Science, and Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs.
Florida Atlantic University’s Broward campuses include the Davie, Fort Lauderdale and Dania Beach locations. Each has its own unique character and emphases. The Davie Campus is FAU’s largest partner campus, predominantly undergraduate, offering more than forty-five 2+2 degree programs with Broward Community College. The Fort Lauderdale-Downtown Campus is in an urban setting and has a strong blend of programs for urban professionals with graduate programs in business and public administration, and programs in the creative industries, including architecture ,computer animation, graphic design, and multimedia studies. The Dania Beach SeaTech Campus is an ocean engineering research and graduate education center.
