Boardman High School Student Turns Grant into Rain Garden

BOARDMAN, Ohio – Lucy Papini, a Boardman High School advanced placement environmental science student, ended her junior year last spring with a statewide grant and honorable mention in an Ohio Watershed competition.  

She spent the following six months turning her grant proposal and vision into a rain garden in the high school courtyard. 

Lucy was one of two AP enviro students to travel to the Cincinnati Zoo in April and receive grants in a field of more than 225 student entries from across the state. 

Lucy’s $820 watershed grant was to complete her design for a rain garden that helps filter out pollutants in runoff and provides food and shelter for butterflies, song birds and other wildlife.

“There were rules that had to be followed when making the rain garden, and the design had to include layers of rock and natural filters,” said Heather Moran, AP Environmental Science teacher. “Once she won the grant, Lucy ran with her idea. And with the help of Boardman’s food services supervisor, Natalie Winkle, and the garden club, she made it happen.” 

Lucy is a member of the school’s new garden club, and Winkle has guided the group to plant and maintain a sustainable vegetable garden, along with various herbs and blueberries.

“It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be,” Lucy said. “I’d hoped to be done sooner. But we did make it in time to coordinate with all the blooms in the vegetable gardens for Mrs. Winkle and the Garden Club. I learned to be resourceful and ask for help when I needed it, and it was a group effort that I’m really proud to have sparked with an idea.”  

Pictured at top: Boardman High School senior Lucy Papini worked over the summer and early fall to plan and install a rain garden in the school’s courtyard.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.