PWEF Funds Native Plants at Guggenheim School

PWEF Grant Funds Native Plants at Guggenheim

 A volunteer band of enthusiastic plant lovers spent the recent Columbus Day weekend planting native plants at Guggenheim School. The group which consisted of community members and Liam Pines, a Guggenheim student, joined together to plant the native trees and bushes in view of the fourth grade classroom windows.

For the past few years, Guggenheim fourth grade students and their teachers, Maribeth Betsch, Teresa Marussich and Dennis Trottier, have observed winter birds feeding at a feeder station located just outside their classroom windows. The students would then enter their observation data for Cornell Lab of Ornithology Project Feederwatch. To increase the numbers of birds attracted to feed at the station, the North Shore Audubon Society and PWGreen applied for and were awarded a grant from the Port Washington Education Foundation (PWEF) for the purchase of native plants.

In all thirteen native plants were added to the Guggenheim school property. Plantings included a flowering Dogwood tree, a Serviceberry tree, Winterberry bushes and two types of native Viburnums, Bayberry and Winterberry. The North Shore Audubon Society and PWGreen support the planting of native plants to help wildlife survive and to conserve water. In addition to education in the schools, these environmental organizations also encourage homeowners to plant native plants in their yards.

The Port Washington Education Foundation is an independent, non-profit, community-based organization. The Foundation supports initiatives that enhance and expand educational opportunities over and above basic educational needs for all students in the Port Washington public schools. For more information and a list of all grants awarded this year, please lot onto: www.PWEF.org.