School Community Plants Beginnings of Grande Garden Outdoor Classroom

Grande Park Elementary School is taking one of its classrooms outdoors.

Members of the school community, including Superintendent Dan O’Donnell and Principal Beth Wulff, broke ground Saturday on the school’s new Grande Garden. Located just east of the school, the outdoor classroom will include rain, butterfly, sensory and vegetable gardens, as well as a bird sanctuary.

“This is an example of what makes District 308 the great district that it is,” O’Donnell said at the ground-breaking. “We talk a lot about the community and the district working together for the benefit of our kids and our community. This project typifies that.”

The idea for the garden started two years ago with the school’s second-grade teachers, Wulff said. The goal is to enhance students' appreciation for the natural environment and develop a life-long dedication to conservation.

“When this whole idea started, it was just going to be a very small flower garden and a pumpkin patch,” second-grade teacher Kim Short said. “However, at Grande Park, as you all know, we do nothing small.”

The project is being funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Illinois Rain Garden Initiative.

Michael Redmer, project manager with the USFWS, said the Illinois Rain Garden Initiative helps “demonstrate to local communities the way that citizens can help store rainwater on a very realistic scale right in their own yards, and also expose them to some of our beautiful native wetland flora.”

According to a news release from the Grande Park Beautification Committee, “the garden will be a place where students can study the long-term effects of experiments performed with each curriculum level … (and will) give students a better understanding of the relationship with nature, creating a dynamic environment for learning core subjects and promoting cooperation through group activities.”

Cathy Crawford, a committee member and the garden's project coordinator, said she hopes the first phase will be complete by the school's Back to School Bash on Aug. 22.

The project is being supported with the help of donations from DJK Groundworks Inc., Espinoza Landscaping, Encore Real Estate Co., Pizzo & Associates Ltd., Ecological Restoration, Chevrolet, Lowe’s, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois Conservation Foundation and the U.S. Wildlife Services.