Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Susie Pickering

Oak Lane Day School

137 Stenton Ave, Blue Bell, PA 19422

Phone: 610 825-1055

Fax: 610 825-9288

Email: spickering@oaklanedayschool.org

Community Service: Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association

The Community Service Program at Oak Lane Day School is alive and well, and today the students embarked on their first project of the year. The study of local watersheds and how they are threatened through overdevelopment and the existence of cultivated lawns guided this project in which the students worked to help convert lawn back to meadow and forestland. The youngest students (three and four year-olds) remained at school planting seeds and bulbs on sections of the 30-acre campus, which is located in the Wissahickon Watershed. Armed with gardening gloves, trowels, and shovels, the children from Kindergarten through Sixth Grade traveled to the Armentrout Preservation, located in Whitpain Township, to plant native wildflowers and other plants and disease resistant American elm trees. The Preservation is a joint project of Whitpain Township and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association.

Judith Gratz of the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association was on hand to teach the students the benefit of having more meadow and the importance of placing a variety of native plants and flowers on the land. After their task was completed, the Oak Lane students and their teachers were treated to a walk through part of the Preservation's beautiful 107 acres where the beginning transformation of the land back to its natural state was clearly evident. Many different types of wildflowers and grasses are in hardy profusion at the Preservation, creating a perfect home for native insects and other animals.

Oak Lane Day School students have been working with the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association on similar projects since 2002, and they truly enjoy the opportunity to make positive changes in their local environment.

Oak Lane Day School Information

An independent elementary school, founded in 1916 and located in Blue Bell, Oak Lane Day School serves a diverse population of boys and girls. Oak Lane honors each child's unique individuality while fostering intellectual, creative, academic, and personal growth within a diverse community of active, engaged learners. Small class sizes and an atmosphere that encourages children to develop their academic and social skills are priorities at Oak Lane, where learning is a meaningful and joyous pursuit. Oak Lane's country-like property of 30 acres along Butler Pike and Stenton Avenue boasts a stream, pond, woods, meadows, and specimen trees as well as athletic fields and playgrounds.

Oak Lane Day School is accredited by the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS), and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools (ADVIS).