WILMINGTON — Environmental education is an important part of our society, but it can be difficult to teach in an impactful way to kids who grow up in an urban environment. DREAMS of Wilmington, a non profit youth development center, has found a way to circumvent that.
Wednesday afternoon, DREAMS unveiled its new “Rainwater Catchment System,” constructed in a joint effort for its new “Garage,” by members of the Cape Fear Surfrider Foundation, and Rainstorm Solutions.
The system is designed to capture the majority of runoff from the DREAMS building and provide water for all of its outdoor needs. This includes several large gardens where students are able to grow their own produce and learn about plants and gardening, as well as a bio retention area that is used to control and reduce toxins carried into our waterways by runoff.
DREAMS of Wilmington is a non-profit organization that provides free literary and arts programs aimed helping children in need become productive, committed citizens.
Sophia Lanza, program coordinator at DREAMS said the system will aid the students in a big way.
“We have eight long beds, and we have tons and tons of plants growing. We now have soaker hoses within the bed, so we can just turn the water on and have it go straight to the roots of the plants,” Lanza said. “Then we also water in the bio retention area, we’re actually growing cypress trees there so we like to keep them wet, because they need a lot of water when it’s not raining, but hallelujah we have rain.”
Kevin Blackburn, assistant director at DREAMS of Wilmington, says that the effort ties back to a 2015 Grant from North Carolina State University, aimed at cleaning up the Burnt Mill Creek Watershed.
“The Surfrider Foundation was kind enough to partner with us, and provide, among other things, a large cistern in the back to capture rain water. They outfitted everything with the gutters and provided a pump so we could actually get the water and utilize it,” Blackburn said. “There’s another cistern in the front, and they actually helped us finish up our bio retention pond as well.”
A joint effort
According to Dave Jacobs, with the Cape Fear Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, the non-profit devoted time this past year to fundraising efforts, and wanted a good cause to put it toward.
“We had been somewhat involved with DREAMS, since Sophia really gets involved with our organization, and we started talking about what they were doing here, which was building that bio retention pond in the middle of the parking lot,” Jacobs said. “They also didn’t have a way to water their gardens, and their plants and grass.”
Jacobs got in touch with Mike Heath, vice president of Rainstorm Solutions, who added that company’s muscle to the effort.
“I contacted Rainstorm Solutions and they came out and did all the work for free, and gave us the tanks at cost, the whole process came out under five grand,” Jacobs said. “They also planted moisture friendly plants in their retention pond, and put in the right kind of mulch to cover the bottom, so that’s really going to take off by the fall, it’s going to be awesome.”
Heath says that once the gutters were in place, the entire process only took a couple of days. They tied the gutters into two cistern tanks, a 750 gallon tank on the front of the building, and a 650 gallon tank in the rear.
“They’re pretty much just gravity fed tanks that runs into that spigot on the side that we installed over there,” Heath said. “We spent a good day out here setting it up and getting everything done with two or three people.”
Kevin Piacenza, President of the Cape Fear Surfrider Foundation, says that the project was a no-brainer for them.
“The whole project really supported our Ocean Friendly Garden campaign, and that’s a non-profit whose mission is helping kids with need, that’s right up our alley,” Piacenza said.
Emphasizing Kevin’s point, Jacobs said that over 90 percent of all water pollution in our area is caused by runoff.
“So, if you can capture it, spread it out, slow it down and soak it in, it can eliminate that,” Jacobs said. “And they have a garden that we’re irrigating, and these kids are going to be able to munch all the fresh fruits and vegetables they grow.”
Piacenza says that he hopes these children will “take that ethic,” and the skills they’ve learned, home with them.
“It’s a good model that people can come see, and use,” he added.
“We’re trying to combine what we do, arts education, and empowering youth in need through the arts, combine that with maintaining an educational component while also working toward sustainability,” Blackburn said. “There’s gardening, teaching them about plants, growing vegetables, it just kind of all ties together. We’re advocating for the environment, and educating youth.”
DREAMS of Wilmington is a youth development organization that is dedicated to building creative, committed citizens, one child at a time, by providing youth in need with high-quality, free-of-charge programming in the literary, visual and performing arts. For more information, visit its website at dreamswilmington.org.
—————————————————————————————————Get in touch with Reporter Cory Mannion: follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or send an email at cory@localvoicemedia.com.
