Want a free rain barrel?

This is cool.

I received word from the Webster school district a few days ago about a neat project which students at Klem Road South Elementary School have undertaken.  As part of a lesson about local water resources, the kids are making rain barrels.

Here’s the letter that the project organizers sent out explaining more about it:

Students show off two of the completed rain barrels

The fourth grade science classes of Mrs. Wendy Smith, Mrs. Eva Burns and Mrs. Elizabeth Coene at Klem South Elementary will soon be making 20 rain barrels! Paul Sawyko from the Storm Water Coalition of Monroe County will be helping students with the creation of the rain barrels.

A rain barrel is something that you put beneath the gutter and the clean rainwater is held in the barrel. Rainwater is a source of unchlorinated water for your plants. Rain barrels conserve water and can provide approximately 1,300 gallons of water during the summer months.

This project is part of an educational grant from Target to enrich our study of water and the environment. We have been working with water in science since the beginning of the year. The fourth graders also have been to the Waste Water Treatment Plant and the Monroe County Water Authority to learn about our local water resources.

Once the students are done with the barrels, they’re all going to need good homes.  So if you would like a rain barrel of your own, free of charge, email Wendy Smith at wendy_smith@ websterschools.org.  She’ll contact you to make arrangements for the pick up of your rain barrel before June 15.

But you better do it soon, because I’ll bet they go pretty fast.