For Immediate Release:
April 28, 2010
April showers make a better rain garden
Spring Lake students teach freeholders about gardening
on Earth Day
SPRING LAKE, NJ – Shortly after a brief downpour gave way to a beautiful, high-arcing rainbow toward the east, the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders proclaimed April 22, 2010 as Spring Lake Rain Gardens Day.
The freeholders recognized the combined efforts of Spring Lake students, teachers, advisers and borough leaders for their efforts to create and explain why rain gardens are a good way to enhance the ecological health of a community while making neighborhoods more attractive places to live.
“The students and the staff of the H.W. Mountz and St. Catharine’s schools have used some imaginative methods to explain to us the importance of rain gardens,” Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry said. “We were delighted to enjoy and learn from two video presentations about these special places in the community.”
At the start of the Board of Chosen Freeholders’ meeting, attendees watched the short videos created by students at the two schools. Two 6th-grade students from the H.W. Mountz School created a video with help of many first- and second-grade students. Three eighth-grade students from St.Catharine’s created an iMovie.
A rain garden is a landscaped, shallow depression that allows rain and snowmelt to be collected and seep naturally into the ground to help recharge the groundwater supply and to prevent a water quality problem called polluted runoff.
The rain garden project was initiated by the Spring Lake Green Team which received a grant from Rutgers Cooperative Extension Service to create and plant a rain garden for educational purposes. The team enlisted the science and library teachers from the two schools as well as the local Garden Club for help with the project.
The Green Team includes members of the local Environmental Commission, Business Improvement District and the Department of Public Works, teachers and a liaison from the Borough Council. There are three rain gardens in Spring Lake: one at H.W. Mountz School; one at Borough Hall and one at St. Catharine’s School.
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Photo Caption: On April 22, 2010, the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders presented a proclamation to students from Spring Lake schools in recognition of their efforts to educate the community about the rain gardens at their schools. From left are: Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry with St. Catherine's sixth graders Samuel Linarducci and Brendan Glavin, Trina Pierce, seventh and 8th grade science teacher at St. Catharine’s School, Linda Krebs, librarian at the H.W. Mountz School, and Spring Lake Councilwoman Priscilla Reilly.