Ecology club competes for $5k grant

NEW LOTHROP – Students in the New Lothrop Ecology Club are vying for a $5,000 grant to continue to develop the fitness trail and nature study area behind the schools.

Beginning today, visitors to www.refresheverything.com will help decide which of several competing projects will receive the grant. The Pepsi Refresh Project offers $1.3 million in grants each month to the top vote getters on the website.

The Ecology Club hopes to use the funds to learn about woodlot management as they selectively harvest trees, conduct a community timber sawing demonstration, build a solar kiln to dry lumber, and more.

“[Ecology] connects students to the world,” said club leader and instructor Ernie Delemeester. “They find out that they are important; they find that they can do something that affects someone else.”

Delemeester said the group teaches the importance of caring for the environment and natural resources, as well as sustainability and self reliance.

The group hopes to harvest at least 1,000 feet of lumber, which will be used in the school woodshop. Trees were selected and marked in April, with the harvest planned for late this summer.

The group, lead by Jake Emmendorfer, Mitch Delemeester, Brandon Mann and Jonathan Knieper, is assisted by forester Jeff Tuller, Melissa Higbee of the Shiawassee Conservation District, Dan Keane of the Saginaw Conservation District, and sawmill operator Mark Schultz.

To vote for the project, visit www.refresheverything.com and create a username. Then search for the project “Improve and Manage Our Community Nature and Fitness Trail.” Registered visitors receive ten different votes each day, and can vote for a project once each day. The Ecology Club’s grant can receive votes from Aug. 1 to Aug. 31.