GR Child Discovery Center begins 'greening their school' following successful fundraising campaign

As it currently sits at its Heartside campus on 409 Lafayette SE, more than 75 percent of the Grand Rapids Child Discovery Center grounds are covered in concrete. 

However, thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign that won the charter school $30,000 in matching funds from the Michigan Economic Development Cooperation and Michigan State Housing Development Authority’s Public Spaces Community Places Initiative, the process of de-paving is poised to begin. 

“Well, with the campaign closed, we have the funds necessary to begin work, so now we’re in the process of communicating with the vendors, getting the plans drawn up, and getting the appropriate permits from the city,” says GRCDC principal John Robinson, adding that the project is slated for completion at the end of the summer and will be ready for the school year come fall. 

With its crowdfunding campaign launched May 17 via the Michigan-based crowdfunding platform Patronicity, GRCDC’s “Greening Our Schools” project was able to raise $38,981 by the June 17 deadline. The funds will be used to de-pave the majority of the current concrete parking lot to offer an open and accessible community and public green space for the students and surrounding neighborhood residents, leaving new grass to root and replace what is currently 30,000 square feet of concrete.

GRCDC’s proposed plans leave the south end of the lot for parking, but also call for a re-routing of current traffic flow for pick-up and drop-off, and though Robinson says the specifics of the new routes are still being determined, the idea is to relieve some of the current traffic congestion on Lafayette and the Wealthy Street round-about by diverting it south. 

The new green space will also divert and reuse rainwater, for both sustainability and educational purposes, as well as provide a space for creating natural play structures, community meeting areas, and outdoor classrooms.

Robinson says that although early discussions about possible natural play structures and outdoor classroom designs including things like using repurposed Sycamore trees as climbing structures and wood balance beams, or creating man-made structures focused on tactile learning and sense awareness, there are still more ongoing conversations to be had among students, staff and administrators at GRCDC before making any final decisions. 

However, teachers and school officials are already in the process of creating the proposal for a new rain garden, which would utilize the new rainwater systems as an educational tool for teaching students about sustainability through rainwater diversion and re-use, and Robinson knows that when the time does come to start making decisions on those big things, all of the new play structures and outdoor learning spaces will all be designed to align with the school’s approach to education — one which champions a collaborative approach and emphasizes the impact of connectedness, whether it be with other students, neighboring community members, or even just the ground beneath their feet.

“As we consider designing those spaces, we’ll consider our approach, which is about collaboration, and using the environment as a teacher, and connecting with our community,” Robinson says. “We really believe the importance of the natural environment and in being a part of that. We’ve seen how our children can learn things like collaboration in outdoors, and even just kindness in being outdoors, so it’s a great connection to who we are as a school…this a big step in that direction of living more fully to that approach.”

For more information about GRCDC’s educational philosiphy or its Greening Our Schools project, visit www.grcdc.org. 

Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Grand Rapids Child Discovery Center