Two Wyoming High School students installed rain gutters and rain barrels at the Wyoming Community Gardens as part of a state contest they entered through the school’s AP Environmental class.
Juniors Allison Abplanalp and Morgan Le won fourth place in the state of Ohio’s Caring for Our Watersheds 2021 contest. Their teacher, Tracy Majors, says each student in her AP Environmental class is required to submit a 1,000-word proposal to enter the competition.
“I leave it [all] up to the kids—they come up with their own ideas,” says Majors.
A total of 22 Wyoming High School teams competed, out of 130 total in the state. Two teams from Wyoming received honorable mentions, and four teams from Wyoming placed in the top 10. Abplanalp and Le were the only ones to implement their project on City property.
They built the rain gutter themselves with the help of volunteers from Le’s Youth Group and Abplanalp’s dad. The rain barrels were purchased from a supplier. Abplanalp said she and Le spent a lot of time in hardware stores and a lot of time watching YouTube tutorials learning how to build a gutter.
“We installed the rain gutters to the existing shed at the community gardens and we attached rain barrels to the down spout,” said Abplanalp.
They installed the rain barrels on the North side of the existing shed at the community gardens.
“To use the rain barrels, just bring a bucket or attach a hose,” said Abplanalp.
The impact of their project will be long lasting, said Majors. “We’ve had some great project ideas—things that are still around. I love the fact that [Allison and Morgan’s] project is going to be at the community gardens for years to come and people will see them. That’s great!” she said.
Abplanalp and Le also painted and installed rain barrels at Vermont Elementary as a part of their project.
For information on Abplanalp and Le’s project, the Mill Creek Watershed, tutorials about how to install rain barrels, links to product information, questions, or to contact Abplanalp and Le, visit their website: https://2220963.wixsite.com/wyomingrainbarrels.
