This grant application was completed by Nathan Glockle, principal at Stowe Elementary School in Duluth.
Last year Stowe Elementary applied for and received a Harbortown Rotary grant to enhance the playscape in front of the school. For the project, Stowe partnered with a University of Minnesota Duluth grad assistant who worked with the Stowe staff and students. Various structures were implemented to get students outside and playing with nature. The team utilized the nature trail, planted vegetable gardens, dug for worms, and more to get students to explore their community and flora and fauna of Gary/New Duluth.
Through the partnership with UMD, the grad assistant's capstone project for the semester, was to create, develop, and present a playscape plan to their professor, a local playscape business, and the principal of Stowe Elementary. The school used the $1,000 from Harbortown to start the process of creating the playscape with natural, outdoor, environmentally sound, and engaging playground equipment. The funds helped to provide a mud kitchen, wood cookies, wood structures to play on, a wood platform for performances, a privacy structure, magnetic strips to hang materials, and labor costs to provide natural playscapes for students.
Photo Credit: Nathan Glockle