We had another wonderful, though very windy Community Workday on Saturday, May 16. There were over 70 volunteers and 12 staff members helping throughout the day.

Your hard work resulted in a very productive day! One of the main projects this year was planting 25 varieties of over 1200 small native plants on the two “green roofs”. More than 35 of our volunteer workers and 6 group leaders worked on that project alone.

Other projects included splitting firewood, removing garlic mustard and yellow rocket invasives from the Mendota Prairie and the Lost Lake areas, chain sawing out woody invasives, staining prairie benches, chipping mortar from Benedict House bricks for re-use, yard work and removing an old fence around the foundation offices, assembling guest room welcome binders, sanitizing handrails and doorknobs in the monastery, and collecting construction trash that had blown into the nearby prairies.

Hungry volunteers enjoyed lunch outside (while holding down their plates) before heading up for a tour of the soon-to-be completed new monastery building.

We would like to extend a special thank you to Bill Knoedler for his sponsorship of this workday, to Panera bread for donating bagels, to Ace Hardware for donating work gloves and tools and to the volunteers and the volunteer team leaders who made all of this work possible. Your efforts help preserve and protect this land for generations to come.

If you attended and would like to give us feedback, please click here to go to our online evaluation form.

Next Community Workday, Saturday, September 19, 2009