We, Young Judaeans are hard at work planning what we hope will be another wonderful community-wide mitzvah project this spring; A Rain Garden here at OZ to be installed on our annual Mitzvah, Day – J Serve Day (a day of Jewish community Service) May 17th (Mark your calendars!)

We’ll be looking for a lot of volunteers of help planting as well as monetary and plant donations. Any garden designers out there that would like to be of assistance in the design of this project, please contact Francine Pomerantz at [email protected] or 434-3443.

What’s a rain garden? A rain garden is a bowl- shaped garden designed to capture and absorb rainfall and snowmelt “storm water” that runs off impervious surfaces such as the roof of OZ. When the water runs off the roof, it makes a mess of our front walk, accumulates pollutants, and delivers them to the Winooski River and into Lake Champlain both of which are located down hill from OZ. A properly placed rain garden will allow the storm water to soak into the ground, recharge groundwater faster and help preserve the waterways that make Vermont so beautiful. Keep watch for more information coming and how you can help and learn more about rain gardens. “Gardening to Absorb the Storms.”