Twentyseven years ago, Roxcy Bolten activist, feminist and trailblazer, came up with the wonderful idea to create the first nation’s park dedicated in honorto all woman contributions. A $1 million investment, this 16-acre Women’s Park located at 10255 W. Flagler St. opened in December 1992. At the opening ceremony, Bolten, the founding president, was named “Mother of the Park.” This is a beautiful and peaceful park; at the main gates, a placard states, “Gates of Love, Courage, & Wisdom.” As a student at Miami Dade College, I participated in a cleanup at Women’s Park and spent the afternoon at the park. As I walked around and enjoyed the recreational facilities, such as: a kids playground, swings, and long side walks around the park. As I began to clean up the trash around the park, people walked passed me and just observed as I picked up. No one stopped to ask me what I was doing or bothered to help me clean up. It saddens me to know that people are that careless about such a beautiful park and do not bother to clean up after themselves. Although the park is pretty clean on it self, there are always people leaving trash behind and not appreciating the history of the park itself. I have been to Women’s Park several times since I enjoy the gentle breeze and the lovely view of nature. In past times, I would come a lot with my partner and spend the afternoon. On our 12 month anniversary, we carved our names on one of the trees, since then, this park has always been very special to me. In addition, when I feel stressed or overwhelmed with school or family problems, I drive to the park and just listen to music and enjoy my love for nature by sitting in the grass. After one or two hours, of being there, I feel distressed and ready to go back to my normal happy life. This lovely park is well liked by others, everytime I pass by or go it’s always filled with people doing exercise or walking around with their loved ones. Parents also tend to take their kids to the playground and walk them on the strollers. Parties also take place, last year, some Native Americans were dressed up and gathered to celebrate their traditions. Many picnics occur also at the location where families or lovers share a lovely afternoon together. To me, the “Gates of Love, Courage and Wisdom” mean prosperity, equality and awareness. I am extremely honored that I get to spend the day at the first nations park in honor of all women where it symbolizes their hard work and contributions. As a femenist, these words mean history, bravery, knowledge and equality for all women. Throughout the past centuries, we were not respected and we could never speak our mind. Knowing that we are not alone, and that we had leaders to represent us and fight for our rights brings me pleasure. Being part of the history of this park, brings me great pleasure. I always wanted to be part of women's history. Now that I have learned about the story behind Women's Park and with everything it comes with, ...

1. Twentyseven years ago, Roxcy Bolten activist, feminist and
trailblazer, came up with the wonderful idea to create the first
nation’s park dedicated in honorto all woman contributions. A
$1 million investment, this 16-acre Women’s Park located at
10255 W. Flagler St. opened in December 1992. At the opening
ceremony, Bolten, the founding president, was named “Mother
of the Park.” This is a beautiful and peaceful park; at the main
gates, a placard states, “Gates of Love, Courage, & Wisdom.”
As a student at Miami Dade College, I participated in a cleanup
at Women’s Park and spent the afternoon at the park. As I
walked around and enjoyed the recreational facilities, such as: a
kids playground, swings, and long side walks around the park.
As I began to clean up the trash around the park, people walked
passed me and just observed as I picked up. No one stopped to
ask me what I was doing or bothered to help me clean up. It
saddens me to know that people are that careless about such a
beautiful park and do not bother to clean up after themselves.
Although the park is pretty clean on it self, there are always
people leaving trash behind and not appreciating the history of
the park itself.
I have been to Women’s Park several times since I enjoy the
gentle breeze and the lovely view of nature. In past times, I
would come a lot with my partner and spend the afternoon. On
our 12 month anniversary, we carved our names on one of the
trees, since then, this park has always been very special to me.
In addition, when I feel stressed or overwhelmed with school or
family problems, I drive to the park and just listen to music and
enjoy my love for nature by sitting in the grass. After one or
two hours, of being there, I feel distressed and ready to go back
to my normal happy life.
This lovely park is well liked by others, everytime I pass by or
go it’s always filled with people doing exercise or walking
around with their loved ones. Parents also tend to take their kids
to the playground and walk them on the strollers. Parties also

2. take place, last year, some Native Americans were dressed up
and gathered to celebrate their traditions. Many picnics occur
also at the location where families or lovers share a lovely
afternoon together.
To me, the “Gates of Love, Courage and Wisdom” mean
prosperity, equality and awareness. I am extremely honored that
I get to spend the day at the first nations park in honor of all
women where it symbolizes their hard work and contributions.
As a femenist, these words mean history, bravery, knowledge
and equality for all women. Throughout the past centuries, we
were not respected and we could never speak our mind.
Knowing that we are not alone, and that we had leaders to
represent us and fight for our rights brings me pleasure.
Being part of the history of this park, brings me great pleasure.
I always wanted to be part of women's history. Now that I have
learned about the story behind Women's Park and with
everything it comes with, I officially feel connected to women's
history. Participating in this cleanup made me realize that I
should do it more often to keep our beautiful park clean so
everyone can enjoy their time here.
If we think about the word reflection, we mean the action and
effect of reflecting. You may also, be thinking carefully about
something. This assignment helped me to reflect and understand
their true concepts. Last week I had the opportunity to visit a
very beautiful park called A.D. (Doug) Barnes Park and is
located at 3401 SW 72 AVE. I liked this park from the first
moment I saw it. This park is named after the first director who
managed the acreage. This director knows the feelings towards
nature and was inaugurated since 1977.
When I arrived at the park, time went by very quickly, I
spent about three hours enjoying the atmosphere of the park. I
could see many things happening in the same place. There was a
group of young people playing on a basketball court and people
walking through the park. There were also picnic families in the

3. centers located inside the park. Furthermore, there are some
exercise equipment and there was a couple doing exercises. In
addition to this, there was a children's playground with channels
and swings, and there were about six children playing and
riding on the devices of the park with their mothers. When I was
walking, through the park I saw a young woman reading a book
around a lake that is also inside the park. I am thinking that;
this young woman feels relaxed and safe of the place and was
also enjoying the lake and the fresh air in the park. I realized
how this park has enough space for people to enjoy the fresh air
of nature and find this space as relaxation, reflection and
enjoyment. After spending some
time in the park and having traveled it completely, I realized
that the park was quite clean, but there were many people
around, children and adults eating and not carrying that food
waste to the correct garbage device. Sometimes they were
papers or bags of chips and for not throwing it away, the air
took it away and that garbage ran through the park through the
air so delicious it was. Then I put on some gloves and picked up
the trash I found around the park; there were devices such as
plastic, water knobs and plastic spoons, soda cans, papers and
food scraps. What struck me the most was that people looked at
me strangely and their faces express confusion. At that
moment, no one approached me to ask me what I was doing or
help me but, after a few minutes I began to observe how the
persons were contributing to throw their garbage on the devices.
This action that I did was very valuable because I teaches
people to be more careful with the maintenance of the park and
the cleanliness in our environment since this pollutes our
atmosphere and the air we breathe. We have an obligation to
focus on a healthier environment, contribute to the cleanliness
of the parks, as well as our beaches and streets. A park is
always a very beautiful place to reflect and animals like
iguanas, squirrels and other incepts that we must take care of
also live. That day I went home very happy since I had changed
the minds of many people and contributed to improve the

4. cleanliness of the park.
My visit to that park was amazing
because I changed my total point of view of our environment.
This was a great learning experience for my own knowledge and
how I can connect to our environment and especially how I can
help contribute to our ecosystem. That day I went home very
proud of me and my park day had become to help and preserve
the atmosphere and open the minds of other people to have a
healthier environment in the park, since all the waste that I
collected while I collected the garbage from the park also ends
up harming the health of ourselves.