Youth Action Corps Install Rain Gardens

Submitted by Stacey White, Volunteer Frederick
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On the fourth Saturday of October every year, millions of Americans unite from coast to coast to serve their communities on Make a Difference Day.  Thousands of projects addressing a variety of social issues are completed by willing volunteers who want to better their communities.  Volunteer Frederick’s Youth Action Corps (YAC) participated in Make a Difference Day by partnering with Bar-T Mountainside Retreat Center, Streamlink, the Frederick County Watershed Management Section, Terry Welsh of the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Potomac Conservancy for an environmental project at the Bar-T Mountainside Retreat Center. 

Volunteers fill the raingarden with biofilter mix.

YAC, a group of middle and high school aged youth are dedicated to creating and implementing service projects in Frederick County. Members learn valuable skills such as leadership, mobilizing others to action, and personal responsibility. Membership is open to all youth who share this passion for service.

A happy volunteer with plants.

On October 24th twenty-one YAC members each gave 3 hours of service to Mountainside. They were joined by volunteers from Mountainside, Hood College and Streamlink. Volunteers installed 3 rain gardens and planted 30 trees in a riparian buffer zone. A rain garden is a planted depression that allows rainwater runoff from impervious urban areas like roofs, driveways, walkways, and compacted lawn areas the opportunity to be absorbed. This reduces rain runoff by allowing stormwater to soak into the ground as opposed to flowing into storm drains and surface waters which causes erosion, water pollution, flooding, and diminished groundwater. Rain gardens can cut down on the amount of pollution reaching streams by up to 30%. This project was made possible through funding from the Potomac Conservancy, the MD Governor’s Office of Service and Volunteerism, and Youth Service America’s Disney Minnie Grants program.

Volunteers with one of the completed raingardens - right before the rain!