Green Team 2024 by the Numbers
Green Team 2024
1350 Hours of Work in the Lake Erie Watershed
450 Hours of Environmental and Workforce Education
300 pounds of Litter Picked Up
Hundreds of pounds of Veggies Harvested
15 Green Teamers
13 Volunteer Guest Speakers
8 Partner Organizations and Initiatives
3 Field Trips
3 Green Teams
1 Incredible Summer!
“We are hard workers and we can make it happen!” - Green Team Member 2024
Green Team 2024 wrapped up at the end of August after a summer that our Green Teamers will not forget. Groundwork Erie employed and educated 15 Green Team Members for 10 weeks between June, July, and August of 2024. Green Teamers had one hour of educational time to begin every day where we had 13 guest speakers volunteer to speak to our Green Teamers on topics such as diversity, city of Erie characteristics, financial management, local organizations and initiatives, watersheds, ecosystems, soil composition, compost, brownfields, food access, interview skills, and more! Students learned a lot from these speakers and also from the field trips our team was able to take throughout the summer.
Green Team members visited the Erie Waterworks Facility. Many thanks to Craig Palmer, Erie Water Works CEO, who lead our tour!
We also visited the Erie Landfill and got to see where the hundreds of pounds of litter we collected throughout the summer ended up.
Green Teamers also learned about Mill Creek and the Mill Creek Tube with a visit to various sites along the creek’s path through (and under!) the heart of Erie.
Education was only part of what Green Teamers got involved in this summer. After the first hour of learning each day, Green Teamers got to work in the community! Here are what our three teams got up to this summer….
Team Bustani partnered with the Erie Farm to School program. They helped plant, harvest, water, and weed at school gardens at our City’s public schools. Students helped maintain the gardens so that food was distributed to neighborhood families and that when students return in the fall, they can enjoy the fruits of the school gardens and use them as places for learning. Bustani is Swahili for “garden”!
“We are hard workers and we can make it happen!”
Team Grasshoppers partnered with 3 of our local neighborhood organizations, Bayfront East Side Taskforce, Sisters of Saint Joseph Neighborhood Network, and Our West Bayfront to assist with landscaping needs, invasive species removal, community garden weeding, and much more!
“ Groundwork is a fun thing to do as a summer job. It helps you build up characteristics, confidence, and effort.”
Greenway 2 Go Team partnered with the Redevelopment Authority and the City of Erie on the Greenway Trail project. Green Teamers helped with landscaping needs on the vacant lots being transformed into a park and helped pick up litter around the neighborhood. Greenway to Go Team picked up over 300 pounds of trash on the Eastside.
“We learned how to work as a team to get our work done in the community.”
Planning ahead!
This summer was memorable and impactful for our Green Teamers and we are already looking forward to next year! In 2025, we are expanding our Green Team to 20 members! As we add members, we are going to be leading community resiliency efforts through tree planting and maintenance as well as urban agriculture projects. One urban agriculture project we are excited to share more about is the 4th Street Community Farm project. You can learn more about the Farm and donate to Groundwork’s work on the farm here: https://donate.seedmoney.org/10839/4th-st-community-farm
Kristen Weeks (Urban Farmer and Green Team Leader) and Jeremy Bloeser (BEST Director and Groundwork Erie Board Member) preparing the ground for the 2025 growing season at the farm!
