YouthBuild McLean County, a school serving low-income youth and adolescents, is transforming two acres behind its building into a sanctuary for staff and students, complete with recreational space, garden plots and a goose habitat.
It's being called the BackYard Renovation and is funded through a $180,000 grant from the Lowe's Hometowns program.
Executive Director Tracey Polson said it’ll be a complete renovation of the land behind YouthBuild that has hardly been used since the charter school moved to the building off Wylie Drive in 2010.
“We've always called that our field of dreams, but right now it's just a field full of overgrown bushes and grasses and any trash that gets collected that we can't reach, so we're really excited to transform that space into a usable and functional space that benefits our students and provides even more learning opportunities for them,” said Polson.
Staff have used the space where possible in the past. Polson said there was a short-lived garden that produced enough zucchini to make staff and students sick of the vegetable by summer’s end, and a lonely, rundown basketball hoop sits there now that gets near constant use but needs an upgrade.
The new funding makes that possible.
Polson said a multi-use sports court will act as the school’s first gymnasium since the current facility can’t support one, and there are plans to cram in as many sports as possible. There’s room in the budget to update the basketball hoops and try other sports, including soccer and volleyball.
“We're going to try pickleball at YouthBuild. That’s kind of new,” Polson said with a laugh.
A 40-by-20-foot pavilion will be used for outdoor lunches and classes, and YouthBuild clinicians, she said, are investigating ways to infuse mindfulness activities for students along a nature path that will take over nearly a full acre so there’s another “opportunity for them to refocus and to reclaim their emotional status” if they get overwhelmed in school.
There’ll also be a new sign to help draw more eyes to the school.
Polson said YouthBuild intends to have the renovation done by Nov. 15 — the grantor’s deadline — and planning is underway to meet that goal. Brushwork was scheduled to start Friday.
Polson noted that students are involved in every aspect of the renovation — from the grant proposal to execution. Students helped make the video submitted with the application, a student designed the walking path and students are going to help plan for the goose sanctuary that Polson said is an essential part of the project.
“We have a large group of geese that like to visit youth in the spring, and it becomes kind of problematic at times because they'll nest in our potholes or on our roof or they'll just you know, run around wreaking havoc,” she said.
Polson said students will research the best vegetation and nesting boxes with the goal of attracting the birds and avoiding future run-ins.
YouthBuild students also are going to help with construction, though mostly on the gardens since licensed professionals are being hired for specialty jobs. Lowe’s also requires grantees to host a community service day, which Polson said will bring in hundreds of volunteers.
