The walkers and nature enthusiasts of the community are pleased to find out that the Crossroads Middle School walking trail is being updated.
During the first semester of this year the Northview Zoology class wrote a grant to improve the Crossroads trail. The trail is meant for people to enjoy the outdoors while exploring the area. The idea of improving it originated with Zoology students and their teacher, Kristine Walendzik.
“It was my idea, but when we started class the kids had to write a grant. They had to write the materials they needed and come up with their own project idea,” Walendzik said.
Walendzik and her students visited other trails during the Fall semester and the kids brainstormed ideas to make the Crossroads trail even better.
The grant was funded by the Northview Education Foundation (NEF). They loved that the projects were student organized.
“[The students] were the ones to write their proposals and present them to the NEF board. We liked the initiative it showed for high schoolers,” Emily Wurn, Executive Director of the NEF said.
Though the grant was just under $500, it had the capacity to make a lot of change. Students cleared out the poison ivy and debris along the trail, installed a one mile loop and put new trash cans in, as well as other innovations. The experience benefited the kids as well by giving them an opportunity to learn new skills.
“The Northview Education Association gave us the money because it was student centered, they were working outdoors, [it was] project based learning, and it was benefiting the community,” Walendzik said.
One of the main goals for the projects was to attract more wildlife to the trail areas, such as butterflies, birds and bees. So they set up new birdhouses, homes and habitats for animals that come by the trail.
