Submitted photo Boardman High School senior Lucy Papini worked over the summer and early fall to plan and install a rain garden in the school’s courtyard.

Staff report

BOARDMAN — Boardman High School AP Environmental Science student Lucy Papini ended her junior year last spring with a statewide grant and honorable mention in an Ohio Watershed competition.

Lucy, now a senior, spent the next six months turning her grant proposal and vision into a rain garden in the high school courtyard. She was one of two AP Enviro students who traveled to the Cincinnati Zoo in April and received grants in a field of more than 225 student entries from across the state.

Lucy’s $820 Watershed Grant was specifically to complete her design for a rain garden that helps filter out pollutants in runoff and provides food and shelter for butterflies, songbirds and other wildlife.

“There were rules that had to be followed when making the rain garden and the design had to include layers of rock and natural filters,” said AP Environmental Science teacher Heather Moran. “Once she won the grant, Lucy ran with her idea, and with the help of Boardman’s food services supervisor Natalie Winkle and the garden club, she made it happen.”

Lucy is a member of BHS’s new garden club, and Winkle has guided the group to plant and maintain a sustainable vegetable garden, along with various herbs and even blueberries.

“It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, I’d hoped to be done sooner. But we did make it in time to coordinate with all the blooms in the vegetable gardens for Mrs. Winkle and the Garden Club,” Lucy said. “I learned to be resourceful and ask for help when I needed it, and it was a group effort that I’m really proud to have sparked with an idea.”