“The Compassion Tree Project” was highlighted by Mayor Ron Nirenberg at the Blessing of the Peacemakers and 25th anniversary of the Peace CENTER, January 26, 2020.

https://nowcastsa.com/news/webcast-2020-blessing-peacemakers

The book  Heartwood, Wisdom from the San Antonio Peace Laureates with an introduction by Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was released. Sister Martha Ann Kirk, who was the 2013 laureate with the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, authored the chapter  “A person’s ‘compassion muscle’ can be strengthened” which includes the story of the five Sisters who gave their lives to save over 90 little boys from the fire at St. John’s Orphanage in 1912. 

The mayor spoke of the collaboration to plant 20,000 trees in 2020 on behalf of Compassion San Antonio.” http://sacompassion.net/  A “Compassion Tree” was planted at UIW on Peace Day, 2019, launching educational and sustainability projects https://saccvi.blogspot.com/2019/11/compassion-tree-planting-san-antonio.html

Mayor Nirenberg noted that the Compassion Tree Project was about future generations and care for the earth. He concluded by quoting a Greek proverb:

“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”