Fox Valley Jewish School students help with prairie restoration project
On a recent blustery Sunday, Sunday school students from Fox Valley Jewish School, run by Fox Valley Jewish Neighbors in Geneva, did a "mitzvah" - a good deed - at Dick Young Forest Preserve in Batavia.
Rob Cleave, volunteer coordinator for Kane County Forest Preserve, met with the students and led them on a short hike into the prairie, where he explained that they would be picking seeds from the Monarda fistulosa (bee balm) and Ratibida pinnata (yellow coneflower) plants.
"We dry these out on big screens, then use them to seed the prairies throughout the Kane County Forest Preserve," said Cleave. "We do this to supplement the seeds we buy, each year. It's very expensive to purchase native heirloom prairie seeds."
The wind whipped around, and clouds rolled overhead as 11 students walked into the heavily covered prairie and searched for the larger coneflower seeds, filled with tiny tubes, and the smaller, cone shaped Monarda seeds.
Both of these plants grow tall, fortunately, and weren't too hard to find.
Using special seed clippers provided by Cleave, the children clipped the seeds and dropped them into white buckets.
Cleave then put all the Monarda seeds in one large can, and all the coneflower seeds in another. These will be combined with seeds harvested by other volunteers into December.
Each year, Fox Valley Jewish School chooses a local nonprofit for the annual Mitzvah Project.
Students attend field trips and based on the nonprofit's needs, make a useful craft for the organization to use.
For a past project, students visited the Fox Valley Wildlife Center in Elburn, organized a fundraiser and made squirrel houses.
The Hebrew word "mitzvah" actually means "commandment," but it also is used to mean "good deed."
Among the 613 commandments in the Jewish Torah, many focus on taking care of the land and animals, as well as not wasting natural resources.
Fox Valley Jewish School is open to students age 3 through eighth grade. Registration is open throughout the year. For information, visit www.fvjn.org, or email info@fvjn.org