Volunteer Opportunities
Chicago Schoolyard Restoration Workday, June 7th, 2024
What: Join MGG to assist Ray Elementary School students, parents and community members with restoring their schoolyard without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
710 Ray Elementary students and many more residents use this schoolyard to play soccer, baseball and softball. Past funding and volunteer support from the Oberweiler Foundation, Athletic Brewing Company and individuals restored the turfgrass last year. The field, however, will return to bare soil and weeds if Ray Elementary does not annually apply compost topdressing, seed, cover with straw and irrigate.
When: June 7, 2024 8 am to 2 pm, CST
Schedule:
8 to 10 am CST: Volunteers will clean debris and hand pull weeds.
10 am to Noon CST: Volunteers will shovel compost into wheelbarrows, drop the compost in piles across the schoolyard and spread the compost using rakes.
Noon to 2 pm: Volunteers will spread grass seed across the compost and hand spread the straw to cover the seeded yard.
How you can support this effort: Either email Nikki Blunier at nblunier@ipminstitute.org to volunteer on June 7th or donate to this restoration workday using the portal below. We estimate needing to raise $8,000 between May 13 to May 31 to host this event.
The Ray Elementary PTO will match each donation, dollar-for-dollar, up until $1,000 has been raised. We will provide daily fundraising updates. Currently, this campaign has raised $0.
Partners include
Ray Elementary PTO, Teegen Composting, LLC., S&M Plow Corp