From the iconic phrase “We can be heroes, just for one day”, to the song “Heroes” by David Bowie, a group of students from Portimão had the idea of launching a public petition with the intention of instituting the 25th of May, the National Day of Gardens, in a tribute to the landscape architect Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles who was born on that date. If I hadn't died recently, Ribeiro-Telles would be 99 years old today.
It was in a Citizenship and Development class that the idea came up. Carlos Café, Philosophy teacher, arrived at the 10thL class at the Manuel Teixeira Gomes Secondary School, in Portimão, and gave the students the opportunity to choose which project to do during the school year.
«I usually use a lot of music in Philosophy classes. So I took them a column, played “Heroes” by David Bowie and wrote on the board the iconic phrase “We can be heroes, just for one day”», said Professor Carlos Café, in an interview with Sul Informação.
The project would either be “something usual, that all classes usually do”, or the students would do “something that changes the world in their own way, even if only for a day”.
After talking about Gonçalo Ribeiro-Telles, who had died a few weeks before, and of which Professor Carlos Café is an admirer, the project to be carried out was established: the students would collect materials on the life and work of the landscape architect and would compile everything into one eBook (only in Dutch at the moment).
«Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles was a landscape architect of choice, awarded nationally and internationally, a visionary thinker, a generous and committed politician and an exemplary citizen. this generous and patient gardener of the Kingdom of Nature is, without a doubt, one of the heroes of our time», say the students in the video to publicize the petition.
When the project began to grow, the idea came up to make a petition with the aim of instituting the National Day of Gardens, on the 25th of May, in honor of the birth day of Gonçalo Ribeiro-Telles. «We think that the garden is a happy metaphor for everything the architect taught us», they emphasize.
“We see this petition and the creation of the National Gardens Day as a fair and deserved tribute to a person to whom the country owes a lot in terms of innovative ideas, reference environmental works and inspiring good practices”, the students also stress.
If all goes as desired, the start of the National Gardens Day celebration, on May 25, 2022, will coincide with the centenary of the architect's birth.
The petition can be signed here, to later be delivered to the Assembly of the Republic.
“If [students] manage to establish a National Garden Day, it will be a great achievement. To materialize such a proposal, idealized by 15-year-olds who still do not vote, never happened», stressed the professor of Philosophy.
However, the students were received at the Municipal Assembly of Portimão, where they presented their proposal for the creation of the Municipal Garden Day for 25 May. The idea was “received immediately”.
Another of the group's initiatives is to give the name Gonçalo Ribeiro-Telles to one of the gardens in the city of Portimão, with the City Council having given «the choice [to students] between two redevelopment of gardens and a new space», highlighted Carlos Café.
Now, the students, the teacher and the Portimão local authority are setting a date to be received at the Salão Nobre of the Portimão City Hall.
Young people have also been invited to collaborate in the Participatory Budget and to be co-organizers of the activities to be promoted next year, on the 25th of May, when the first Municipal Garden Day is celebrated. The initiatives are being thought and planned by students.
As to eBook (only in Dutch at the moment), was scheduled for release on the 25th of May, this Wednesday, but this will not be possible due to the media coverage that the project has had. However, soon, the online book will be released to the entire community, featuring illustrations by several students from the Group, including young people from Special Education.
For more information, please consult the social networks from the project.
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