Green-minded Northfield residents, students join forces to win grant

How does your garden grow?

In the case of a Northfield school, it happens through collaboration between students, faculty sponsors and a local group dedicated to sustainability practices and environmental awareness.

Go Green Northfield and the Sunset Ridge School Green Club recently learned that they had received an $858 grant from the Illinois Green Alliance, which will be used to build a rain garden at the school.

Sarah Cohn, of Go Green Northfield, said the group has worked with both schools in Sunset Ridge District 29 — Middlefork School (kindgergarden-third grade) and Sunset Ridge School (Grades 4-8) — for projects such as composting in the lunchrooms and recycling used markers and broken pens.

When Go Green Northfield learned of the grant opportunity, Cohn said the group reached out to Dr. Ivy Sukenik, the principal at Sunset Ridge School, to see if they could collaborate on the grant application.

Their conversation led to a connection with the Green Club at Sunset Ridge, co-sponsored by fifth grade teacher Matthew Wilkinson.

Wilkinson said Green Club’s members, who are current fourth- and fifth-graders, meet “with the goal of finding ways of making our school more sustainable and help out the environment.”

Cohn and another Go Green Northfield member attended a Green Club meeting to share their idea with the students, and once they were all on board, they started planning on the type of project, eventually settling on a rain garden.

“We walked around the school (and) we looked at different potential sties of where we could put a native garden,” Cohn said.

Wilkinson said they eventually found an area at the back of the school that doesn’t have much green space.

“It’s an area that’s very shady, and it’s very moist, so it’s kind of a hard area to grow,” he said.

The students then took a significant role in doing research for the grant application.

“They helped with the plant selection process,” Wilkinson said. “We gave them a few websites where they could locate the information needed, and we told them they have to be native to our area, and they needed to survive well in a moist area and with low sun.”

Cohn said the students also did more than just research the plants.

“They took soil samples and measured the pH (acid and basic levels) of the soil and found out what type of soil it was and measured the plot,” she said. “They were really involved in all of the prep work that it took to then be able to go and write the narrative for the grant.”

Cohn said the adults handled writing the application, but it was all of the students’ research that went into the application, which was submitted in December.

And just a month later, Go Green Northfield learned that they had received the entire $858 they had requested from the Illinois Green Alliance.

Both Wilkinson and Cohn said the students were excited when they found out they had received the grant.

“They were very excited because they had put in a lot of time,” Wilkinson said. “I think that they’re also excited to have a role in planting and caring for the garden. I think they’re excited to take ownership of that.”

“It was like they won the lotto,” Cohn said of the students’ reaction.

She added that the grant will be used to cover the cost of the plants, mulch and topsoil, and can’t be used for hardscaping. It will reportedly cover everything except for the stepping stones the students plan on including.

Wilkinson said the students are currently working on acquiring the plants and are also working with the Sunset Ridge art teacher to include a student creative component. He added that they also want the garden to include a recycled feature.

It’s expected that the garden will be put together in May.

Cohn called the Green Club’s work “super inspiring,” especially with the challenges of climate change.

“I think it’s really impactful to see them go through that (grant application) process,” she said. “And they’re really the ones we need to rely on to help with figuring out solutions to climate change.”

She also commended D29 and their partnership with Go Green Northfield.

“They’re always willing to work with us, and they’re really committed to partnering with Go Green and with other local organizations, and I think it’s a really special thing about this district.”

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