Southeast Springfield Rotary Club visited Watershed Natives for Grant Review Luncheon
Huge thanks to the Rotary Club of Springfield Southeast for visiting our educational greenhouse last week and interacting with students involved in our pathways project that gave testimonials! Members got to see the benefits of their recent grant funding initiative in action.
Their recent grant assistance helped expand the variation and amount of species cultivated by students and ensure the future development and maintenance of the Watershed Natives program.
Watershed Natives provides many opportunities to share the myriad benefits of native plants with students, teachers, and community members and plant the seeds of stewardship.
Students learn the fundamentals of plant production, greenhouse operations, agriculture, and soil health that are integral parts of the Springfield Public Schools FFA and Environmental & Natural Resource Management College and Career Academy programs at Hillcrest High School. The roots of Watershed Natives lie in a three-way partnership with:
- Springfield Public Schools
- Ozark Empire Fairgrounds
- the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks.
President of the Rotary Club of Springfield Southeast, Lori Johnson Murawski, said, “We chose to partner with the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks via the Watershed Natives program on this year’s nearly $15,000 District Simplified Grant project because it highlights one of Rotary International’s newly adopted “Areas of Focus” on the Environment. This project also ties in with our existing international focus on supporting education, growing local economies through career readiness training in the science pathway as well as improving clean local water quality by planting Missouri native plants to prevent erosion into our creeks and streams. This grant project really addresses SEVERAL key areas Rotary is passionate about, and we have enjoyed seeing the fruits of our partnership bloom this year.”
Great partners like the Rotary are what keep our programs flowing and growing. Thank you, Southeast Springfield Rotary!
