Gurrie Middle School students, local filmmaker create safe spot for migrating butterflies

LA GRANGE – Just outside the library of Gurrie Middle School in La Grange is the students’ garden.

The garden is home to pears, peppers and cabbages, which are grown and cultivated by students who learn about conservation, sustainability and their effect on the environment while tending the patch.

On July 15, teachers, students and a local filmmaker teamed up to welcome a more temporary – yet honored – guest into the garden: Migrating monarch butterflies.

Steve Driscoll, a teacher at Gurrie Middle School, and Eric Rejman, a filmmaker and photographer from La Grange, presented members of Gurrie Middle School’s Green Team with the highlights of a documentary on the monarch butterfly’s life and their annual migration from southern Canada to northern Mexico.

Afterward, students got the chance to get their hands dirty by creating a monarch way station – planting a venerable buffet of milkweed and perennials that the monarchs love.

For Driscoll, the butterfly garden wouldn’t have been a reality without the help of Rejman.

[ “I met [Rejman] at an art show,” Driscoll said. “We didn’t have a purpose for the garden until … Eric donated the milkweed.” ]

Working with nature, either from behind the camera or in the dirt, is familiar territory for Rejman.

The last nature film he worked on, a documentary on climate change called “Tides of Change,” won best environmental documentary this year at the Canada Film Festival.

“My goal is to connect people with nature,” Rejman said. “[It’s a] fundamental aspect for connecting people [and] it is an important experience. I want to use my art as a way to communicate science. They have an invaluable relationship to each other. They are quintessential to understanding the Earth.”

According to Driscoll, the monarch sanctuary is just one part of Gurrie Middle School’s Green Team curriculum, which invites students from across the district to learn about nature and their role in the local environment. Driscoll already has plans to put some of the garden’s harvest to good use.

“Next Wednesday, we’ll be pickling and making gourmet ketchup,”  Driscoll said. “We also grow cabbage to turn into sauerkraut and we’ll be making jams next week. It’s about partnering up our kids with local experts and growing things that have meaning.”

Jordan Cole, a resident of La Grange and an eighth-grader at Gurrie Middle School, said seeing a film on the monarch’s life cycle brought meaning to helping it along its massive journey.

“I thought it was really inspiring in helping a problem and to make a difference,” Cole said. “I’ve learned it’s not that hard to take an hour of your time to plant something and help the environment and have a good time.”

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Related story:

[ Gurrie students team up with La Grange Wild Monk to learn how to prepare their produce into tasty meals. Read the story at http://shawurl.com/1iok ]