"Creating SYNERGY: Phase One"

In October of 2017, Synergy Club was established at the Stillwater Area High School with the goal of constructing a community-giving garden that would be entirely managed by students and ultimately donate to local food shelves. Our dynamic team comprised 6 eighth-grade students, advised by our district technology coordinator, Mrs. Julie Balfanz, and worked closely with This Is Stillwater, an organization developing sustainable technology. 

Our desire to embark on this project was inspired by a shared goal of helping our students take action in the community. We had all been studying environmental degradation in our science classes and EPA laws in our history lessons, but we felt that creating something at the local level that we could be directly involved in was important to us. 

At the time, the students on our team were heavily involved in a variety of STEM extracurriculars and Project Lead The Way (PLTW) courses. Motivated by this shared passion, we created 3D renderings of potential garden beds and a digital map to determine optimal layouts based on sunlight, ground slope, and tree cover. Admittedly, this may have been a tad overkill. However, our team felt it was important not only to develop these skills but also to thoroughly prototype and explore methods beyond the conventional and the instinctual. We settled on four raised beds, each measuring 4’ x 8’ x 2’, constructed out of lumber and fenced in with four-foot-high chicken wire fences. In our rural town, deer and rabbits are common issues for gardeners, so we took advice from neighbors on which fencing and construction would work best to keep our plants safe.

As middle schoolers, getting busy adults not only to listen to us but also to trust us with their time and resources was not easy. We decided to start by securing a plot of land that suited our needs for a space to gather and grow. Being a little nervous about our first cold email, we had our advisor reach out to Robert Engstrom, a prominent land developer who had long incorporated regenerative agriculture into his designs for our town. With a little luck and a lot of patience, we eventually secured a meeting with him and his team to pitch our idea for a project that could teach middle school students the importance of responsibility, stewardship, and community involvement. They wholeheartedly agreed with our mission and offered us a small plot of land if we could gather enough donations and materials to ensure we could follow through. This was our first grand success! 

Having gained confidence from this first “real-world” conversation, we then began sending out emails of our very own, asking plant greenhouses, construction supply stores, and gardening centers if they would be willing to offer physical donations or discounts to our student group if we in return would place their name on any of our materials as a form of free advertising or if we supplied them with story blurbs and pictures to use on their own.

This process was extensive and included countless conversations with community partners, resource organizations, and educators. We made invaluable connections with Cimarron Farms and learned a lot from the staff at River Valley Market Co-op, who conducted a site visit and graciously donated seedlings for all four of our raised beds for two consecutive years. We planted two varieties of tomatoes, one heirloom and one nonheirloom, as well as several varieties of peppers, collard greens, kale, and some perennial herbs. We opted for these varieties based on ease of maintenance, what would produce the most output, and what would grow best in our beds. Due to this careful selection, we did not need to apply any synthetic pesticides or fertilizers to our beds; instead, we handpicked small bugs from the underside of our leafy greens when necessary and left the rest to grow on its own. This growth was also made possible by Rick Buberl & Son Black Dirt, who generously offered to donate the garden mix of soil for our garden after hearing about our mission and hopes for the project.

The construction of our space was a true team effort, led by our team with the incredible support of our families and friends. Parents, grandparents, and neighbors showed up with pickup trucks, power tools, and a helping hand to pull all of this together, and we cannot thank everyone involved enough. We are so appreciative of the time and resources lovingly poured into this effort. 

Eventually, this became our success story, and we were able to fully construct our garden in 2021 with a fruitful first growing season, harvesting over seventy pounds of fresh produce and delivering it to Valley Outreach, a nearby food shelf. The following year, we expanded both our operations and our team and plan to continue doing so in the upcoming seasons, thanks to our motivated team and generous partners. 

The team that made this possible went on to receive grant funding to develop a how-to guide distributed to thirty-eight local little libraries detailing our process for creating a small-scale garden, including a donated pack of seeds. 

The space continues to grow and is used by a variety of community members, and is managed by our SYNERGY Club at Stillwater Middle School. Since this project began, our team has expanded from six individuals to over 40 weekly participants and 300 total members. The current SYNERGY students have pursued projects such as building an underwater lake-monitoring robot, combining fashion with Micro: bit sensors, and continuing to build a 3D rendering of Stillwater on Minecraft servers. We are so excited to see where these young leaders go and the great things they pursue!

Benefits to the school and the wider community:

 Setting out to accomplish this project, our main goal was to benefit the wider community by providing fresh produce for those who were food-insecure. Ultimately, we accomplished this goal and donated vegetables to our local food shelter. Beyond this, we succeeded in fostering engagement among 6th-8th-grade students at the schools, encouraging them to interact with our project and community members in a low-stress environment to promote holistic thinking about food, environmentalism, and education. 

Education Connections:

This project was not a part of any formal curriculum or educational standards. Instead, we took a more informal approach and structured our project as a volunteer-based extracurricular activity to afford our students more flexibility and control. The ideation, planning, networking, and execution of the garden taught our team many lessons, and our students were engaged at every step. The mockups for the initial garden plan were designed through hours of conversation and eventually made into a digital 3D rendering by one of our eighth-grade students. From there, external communications, writing, networking, and presentations were coordinated and managed exclusively by our students. This project became an excellent lesson in how to operate in the professional world and secure funding, resources, and support. As our team moves through high school and beyond into higher education, they carry these learning experiences with them and find success in their endeavors.

Community Connections:

 Our first partnership stemmed from a chance encounter with inspired individuals. Our team was in the very first phases of ideation when we were approached by Michael Manore and Dianne Polasik, community members who had been working to improve access to sustainability programs for students. They had heard about our group’s hope to develop an actionable project plan and wanted to support our endeavors. Together, they founded This Is Stillwater, a nonprofit that used GIS technology to map our town's energy and waste data and to document natural landmarks. Interacting with leaders in our community and engaging in discussions informed by their wealth of knowledge was instructive for our growing team. 

Once we had solidified our plan to construct the garden, it was time to begin collecting resources. The River Valley Market Co-op generously donated around 30 seedlings after their annual plant sale. In addition, we built a valuable relationship with their general manager, a former small-scale farmer, and made several site visits to instruct our team on best practices for healthy cultivation and low environmental impact. Following this impactful conversation, we gained another partnership with Rick Buberl & Son Black Dirt, who donated 64 cubic feet of black dirt and peat moss. Prior to this endeavor, we had no idea there were so many for-profit businesses willing to establish these relationships or provide their expertise when given the opportunity to connect directly with groups with meaningful goals to make a difference. For our team, this was truly encouraging and inspirational as we had a renewed faith that collective effort is worth the time!

This project would not have been possible without our invaluable champions and their support in many forms. It truly does take a village to create positive change, and it is instrumental when dealing with the diversity of students in our schools. Our fearless advisor, Mrs. Julie Balfanz, has been the backbone of our team for many years now, and we could not be more thankful!

 From the very beginning of this project, community partners Dianne Polasik and Michael Manore were wonderful innovators and support systems for our team, pushing us to explore new technology and think differently about what sustainability could mean. The unique expertise, funding, and resources they continue to provide our students with mean the world to our team. 

As for the location of our garden, we have Bob Engstrom to thank. He and his family are local land developers and were kind enough to lend us the plots in the Little Bluestem neighborhood. That community itself was immensely supportive, especially our primary contacts, Ron Kirk and Mark Wolak. These champions met with our team numerous times and provided their insights based on their educational backgrounds regarding our project and its development. We are so grateful for their welcome and willingness to work with us.

We’d also like to thank River Valley Market Co-op and Rick Buberl & Son Black Dirt for donating materials to us, making the construction and planting of this garden a success year after year. The generosity of these local businesses made our goals achievable and our project a reality. 

Project Team and Support:

• Gabriella Briggs - Co-Founder of Synergy Team and Project Manager

• Ava Roots - Co-Founder of Synergy Team and Lead Coordinator and Communications

• Julie Balfanz - our trusted Advisor and school connection, District Technology Coordinator

• Jocelyn McBride - Team member and visuals development

• Katherine Liu - Team member and discussion leader

• Grace Grant - Team member and garden caretaker

And a special thanks to Ron Kirk and Mark Wolak for their immense support in the Little Bluestem neighborhood.