Over three weeks in April, the Burns & McDonnell and Spaces team worked in the Outdoor Classroom rehabbing a recycled door fence, laying a gravel path edged with salvaged bricks, and assisting with the design and planning of numerous Eagle Scout projects to be integrated with the site master plan developed by our team in 2009.
According to the Sustainable Cities Institute, construction and demolition waste account for 45% of what goes into US landfills. This year our team salvaged 20 old doors, diverting them from landfills, and installing them on a fence made out of doors! In addition our team salvaged nearly 900 old bricks ranging from 60 to 80 years old and installed them as edging around the gravel path. The improvements that were made will enable the children of Operation Breakthrough to not only interact with nature but learn how common “things” can be repurposed to be fun and functional.
Burns & McDonnell and Spaces have worked with Operation Breakthrough for over a year and half and will continue to work on the project in the coming months. These projects will include installing an additional segment of recycled door fencing with gates made out of doors, designing the street entrance off Forest Ave., and helping to plan an ecological education event involving parents and children. The team will also be working with 5 Eagle Scouts on the design and construction of a three-bin composting system, an additional tumbling composter that children can spin to watch waste break down over time , signage to denote the various interest areas, children size benches, and art easels for children to paint on. This project continues to be so much fun that the Burns & McDonnell and Spaces team can’t fit all the work into one month! |
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