The Friends seek partners within the Indianapolis community and with agencies and organizations that share a focus on the environment.
Our vision depends on building and strengthening such partnerships and integrating the partners into the life of the school.
These are some community partners that have enthusiastically joined us in our mission:
Partners in the Environment
1. Members of the Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society helped design and plant a native plant demonstration garden next to the Sommers Mansion and a prairie next to the Greenhouse.
2. Marion County Master Gardeners Association lends volunteers to help maintain the demonstration gardens. For them, the school is a place of learning and service.
3. With the University of Illinois' Dr. Frances Kuo, director of the human-environment research laboratory, teachers studied the impact of nature on 3rd graders' attention to task in the classroom.
4. Earth Charter Indiana facilitated water resource projects on the campus.
5. Indianapolis Museum of Art sponsored the Edible School Yard project with noted author and local food advocate Alice Waters.
6. Marian University's Nina Mason Pulliam EcoLab regularly participates in PIE days and has partnered on the care and restoration of habitat and trails.
7. Project Learning Tree of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources facilitated a Green School grant in 2008-09.
8. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful Inc. furnished plants, soil, mulch, tools, materials, and volunteers to establish the Gathering Garden, a demonstration of native plants in a designed landscape.
9. Eco Logic LLC, an environmental firm, eradicated bush honeysuckle and re-established the understory by planting some 3,000 trees.
10. The American Society of Civil Engineers volunteers, guided by Ken Remenschneider Associates Inc., worked with students to construct a Rain Garden in 2010.
10. Countless volunteers from local businesses have donated time to weed, mulch, and otherwise care for the land.