Sunday, November 7th:  GISW Day of Community Service

GISW Day of Community Service Initiative

Community Service is a permanent dimension of the GISW’s core educational mission. In celebration of our school’s 60th anniversary and in support of our wider community building efforts, we will be offering the members of our school community a variety of service opportunities throughout the year focused on caring for the environment, supporting vulnerable populations and building positive relationships with our neighbors. The idea behind this initiative is for current and former students, parents, teachers, staff and friends of all ages to come together and work jointly toward a common purpose, contribute something of value and improve our shared surroundings.

Service opportunities will be posted on the 60th Anniversary Website as they become available in the coming months along with project descriptions and instructions for signing up to volunteer. Additional information will be disseminated via the Wednesday Mail as well as direct mailings to the school community.  For questions regarding this initiative please contact Jennifer Precht, Advancement Director at jprecht@giswashington.org.

 

Reclaiming Our Forests – November 7th 2021

Please join us on Sunday, November 7th for the official launch of our 60th Anniversary GISW Day of Community Service initiative where we will be working on the initial stages of a long-term project focused on protecting and preserving the forest conservation zones which comprise the green spaces and natural environment surrounding our school.

 

Why this Project?

One of the things we love about our school campus is the beautiful, green spaces all around. These spaces provide shade and serve as buffer zones with our neighbors, reducing noise and increasing privacy. They protect the environment by reducing runoff and erosion, and they also provide habitat for native plants and animals. Unfortunately, these spaces are under increasing pressures from climate change, overgrazing by increasing deer populations, and most important, attack from invasive plants. Invasive, non-native vines, like porcelain berry and oriental bittersweet, have covered our evergreen trees blocking light from getting to the trees. Japanese stilt grass has out-competed and killed much of the native vegetation normally found on the forest floor. We must act now to save the native and planted vegetation in our green areas and preserve the forest conservation zones for which we have stewardship.

 

What Will We Be Doing on November 7th?

A total of 20 volunteers are needed to assist with the removal of invasive non-native plants that have taken over and/or killed much of the native and planted vegetation found on the forest floor surrounding our beautiful campus.  We will be spending three hours from 1-4 pm learning to identify and remove invasive vines from our evergreen trees. We will also be manually weeding out the invasive Japanese stilt grass and preventing its regrowth by replacing it with mulch in a designated area east of the elementary school.  During the coming spring, these mulch beds may be planted with native ground covers, flowers, or bushes to further discourage invasive grasses from returning and potentially provide additional attractions for pollinators.  This work of removing invasive grasses and vines from our forest conservation zones is necessary to prepare for future planting of replacement trees.

 

For those interested in learning more, please click on the links below:

 

 

How Do I Get Involved?

To best support the work needing to be done on Sunday, November 7th, we are looking for a select group of 20 volunteers from within our school community interested in helping us to advance this project.  No prior experience needed…all volunteers will be trained on day of event.   Ten of the 20 volunteers should be adults (parents, teachers or staff) while the other ten should be students from grades 7-12.  

 

> If you are interested in participating in this service project, please sign up here.  

 

Spaces will be filled on a first-come first served basis and the sign-up list will be closed once all of the space have been filled.  Sign up TODAY!

Important Information Regarding Covid-19:

All volunteers coming to campus on November 7th must adhere to the following Covid-19 prevention measures:

 

·         All participants must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19

·         All participants must complete a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours prior to the event.

·         Face masks must be worn for the duration of the event by all participants

·         Social-distancing must be observed

 

Volunteers who sign up to participate in this service project will receive further instructions via email about where to meet, what to bring, and what to wear.  All questions regarding this service project may be directed to Jennifer Precht, Advancement Director at jprecht@giswashginton.org.

We look forward to seeing you with your work gloves on Sunday the 7th!