April 10, 2008 - Groundwork Bridgeport, a local nonprofit, has been working over the past year to construct an outdoor classroom in a once vacant lot next to Luis Munoz Marin Elementary. With the warm weather, the lot is ready for a spring clean-up and further construction. A local student working on his Eagle Scout project has planned a full weekend of work at the site, and with his help, Groundwork will be making a lot of progress on the outdoor classroom this Saturday, April 19^th. 

 

The Eagle Scout project requires 100 hours of work including planning and man hours. On Saturday, a number of scouts and their parents will be helping to plant different species throughout the lot, spread mulch, and edge flower beds.

 

The purpose of the site is to create a Neighborhood Environmental Demonstration Site. As construction progresses over the summer, a fence will be installed around the site and educational signs will be erected. Topics at the site will include urban pollution, soil contamination, and water pollutants. The plants being put in by the scouts will demonstrate a process known as phytoremediation, which has shown that the root systems of certain plants are capable of extracting contaminants from soil.

 

The Neighborhood Environmental Demonstration Site will serve two purposes in the community. First, a vacant and blighted lot has successfully been reclaimed as green space and will be a clean outdoor space for residents in the neighborhood to enjoy. Second, the site will have an educational component for both the community and the students at Luis Munoz Marin. Groundwork Bridgeport will work with teachers at the school to develop a curriculum to educate students about nature and provide an opportunity for children in the city to have a safe space to go outside.

 

The work at this site has been made possible by grants through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the city of Bridgeport.