Community Work
Our students, staff and volunteers have been involved in a number of environmental projects within the greater Kansas City community. The larger projects are included below.
Yard Signs
Several of our young adults alums, including a graduate of the KC Art Institute, are designing environmental yard signs using the principles of social marketing. The signs are printed using sustainable ink on durable card stock and last up to a year. The 18″ x 24″ signs are $9 each and include the metal stake. Email info@greenworkskc.org for more information.
Remake Learning Days
For the past three years, Green Works has participated in Kansas City’s Remake Learning Days spring event. We have hosted nature hikes that feature native tree identification, and bird watching. We’ve offered art exploration that explores nature patterns and amazing mushrooms. Family members of all ages have joined us for these fun events at Lakeside Nature Center and the Discovery Center.
Repair Cafe and Open House
During the fall of 2019, Green Works, along with our neighbors the Maker Village, 816 Bike Collective, and Stitching Change, sponsored a Repair Event where community members could bring clothing, jewelry, small wood and metal items, lamps and bicycles for minor repairs. Our expertise was free, but we welcomed donations. Some of the costs for the event were covered with a small grant from the MARC Solid Waste Management District.
The Oxbow on Brush Creek
Our students and volunteers undertook a habitat restoration project at the oxbow on Brush Creek. Students, volunteers and partners planted more than 3,000 native plants and shrubs on the creek and 35 native trees and removed nearly 2 acres of invasive honeysuckle. We installed bird and bat houses, signage, and conducted clean-ups, water quality testing and assisted with bird counts and banding. The city recently completed an extension of the hiking and biking trail that now takes visitors past the oxbow. Funding for the oxbow project came from an EPA 5-Star grant and a TogetherGreen Innovation grant from The National Audubon Society and Toyota. The Kansas City Star covered one of our early planting events in the spring of 2011.
WaterWorks!
As part of EnergyWorks KC, our students assisted Bridging the Gap with WaterWorks!. Our students co-hosted nine community events, presenting 5 Blue Things and Our Water is in Jeopardy, a game that the students developed and fabricated. Students distributed water saving kits and copies of our native plant book. With our board members and volunteers they helped community members build 25 rain barrels and plant two rain gardens.
Videos
Out students have worked with KCMO Water Services and Parks & Recreation to write and help produce videos for use at community events. The first video is about preventing water pollution and the second highlights the new recycling program at the community centers.
Foamzilla vs. Foamnami
Our students created an art project to help educate people about polystyrene (commonly called Styrofoam). The students envisioned a city being engulfed by a Foamnami wave, or being trampled by a Foamzilla. Their instructor, Krystal Anton, arranged for the students’ artwork to be displayed at Wallace Engineering for a spring First Friday event. The students had a wonderful time talking to everyone and explaining the problems with polystyrene. The students and the exhibit also traveled to Troostfest and to the Plaza for an Earth Day event.
Shake Up Recycling with Eco Elvis
We teamed up with Kansas City’s own Eco Elvis to visit community organizations, educate residents about the city’s recycling program, and distribute recycling kits with bins, reusable water bottles and shopping bags. Eco Elvis sang and the students talked about their recycling efforts at home and we distributed more than 200 kits. At each event, people stayed behind to talk to the students and were excited to find out that many of the students were from their neighborhoods!
Storm Drain Manhole Cover Design
Our founder, Kate Corwin and designer Mike Buster had the winning design for the new KCMO storm drain manhole covers. The design includes rock art style animals as a reminder of our area’s Native American history and respect for the environment.
We hope this new design helps people remember that whatever is on the ground ends up in our waters. And what ends up in our water ultimately ends up in us.
The new covers have been installed strategically in areas of high walking traffic in Kansas City. See if you can spot one!
