Last November the Ladue Dad's Club contributed to finance the creation of a Rain Garden by LEAF. Under the direction of Ladue Chemistry Teacher Sarah Barton, the five-member Ladue LEAF Team built a Rain Garden, then competed against 14 other Teams. Ladue's "Leaves" earned $10,000 by qualifying to compete in the Finals. Then, they won another $30,000 by becoming a Finalist!
 
Congratulations are in order to Sarah Barton and her LEAF Team!

By Valerie Schremp Hahn
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/20/2009

LADUE — The new rain garden that students have planted at Ladue High School may not look like much, but it's slowly changing the ecosystem at one particular end of the parking lot.

It won the school and the students $40,000 in scholarship and prize money — but more on that later.

Here's what the rain garden does look like: it's about 250 square feet of soil topped by gravel and planted with native grasses and flowers, such as coneflower, sneezeweed and soft rush. Yes, the plants do have a lot of growing to do. But the students started some of them just a few months ago from seed, and it's still early.

The rain garden is already attracting a following. Last week, as the students plucked weeds from the gravel, a grayish-green frog hopped by.

"Where did he come from?" student Rivka Feinberg asked, crouching to pick the frog up.

"Maybe he'll bring his friends," classmate Gina Wilmott joked.

Ladue's Team LEAF (Ladue Environmental Action Force), made up of graduating seniors Feinberg, Wilmott, Natalie Krebs, Maxwell Montaldo, and Mark Wilensky, designed, built and got the word out about their garden.

Their efforts, under the moderation of chemistry teacher Sarah Barton, made them one of 14 high school team finalists earlier this spring in a contest called the Lexus Eco Challenge. They won $10,000 for qualifying to compete in a final challenge of the contest and $30,000 for becoming a finalist.

The students had to do more than design and build a rain garden, which they did with the help of a $200 donation from the high school Dads Club. They also had to get approval from school and city officials to build the garden, and they also had to educate people about what a rain garden is.

So what is a rain garden? Team LEAF's own brochure on the topic explains it: "A rain garden is a strategically located, low-lying plot of earth containing a variety of perennial native plants."

Rainwater running off from the parking lot blacktop — water tainted with grime and fluids from the scores of cars and SUVs — drains into the garden. The roots from the plants there, which have naturally deeper roots because they're native, soak up the pollutants and turn them into biologically active chemicals.

Because the water from the parking lot is warmer than normal from sitting on pavement, the rain garden cools the water. That cooler water drains into Deer Creek — and because it has cooled, it doesn't disturb the creek's ecosystem.

Rain gardens can help alleviate drainage issues, which can be a problem at the school. During heavy rains last fall, Ladue had to submit an insurance claim of more than $200,000 because of flooding in basement classrooms.

The students have become rain garden ambassadors, spreading the word through their brochure, by speaking to naturalists and teachers, and through their website, www.teamleaf.org, where they have placed specific Google ads to target audiences worldwide.

As part of their outreach efforts, Team LEAF linked to the website for Show-Me Rain Gardens, a regional initiative to promote the gardens.

Jenn Lewis of the St. Louis County Water and Conservation District, a partner in the initiative, said the rain garden movement is picking up momentum.

"Water quality is a huge, huge issue, but rain gardens are a very easy, very accessible solution," she said. "Anybody can do it, from a weekend gardener to a school to a corporate entity to a hospital."

All the members of Team LEAF graduated earlier this week and they have asked a few current students to keep an eye on the garden. Besides the initial weed-pulling maintenance they had to do last week, upkeep is minimal. "It's incredibly low-maintenance," says Krebs.

All their work will have some lasting effect. Parents and residents have contacted Team LEAF members about putting rain gardens in their own yards, and a few members have persuaded their own parents to build gardens as well. And the team hopes to use part of the prize money toward buying solar panels for the school.

It feels good to leave a bit of a legacy, the students say.

"You can actually do something to help the environment, especially in a suburban community where there's not much wildlife left," said Montaldo.