Angela Blemker, author of the local education blog Teach Dirty, wrote to us with some exciting news: the Green Lake Garden Club and Green Lake Elementary School PTA have received a Small and Simple Award from the Neighborhood Matching Funds program.

Angela writes:

These funds will be used over the next 7-8 months to radically improve and enhance the existing Olallie Native Plant and Wildlife Sanctuary at Green Lake Elementary School.

The first work party will take place on Saturday, March 27, 2010. With the help of Green Lake School students and their families and a local Boy Scout troop, the Garden Club will build raised garden beds for student planting and begin renovations in the schoolyard habitat.

More information about the Olallie Native Plant and Wildlife Sanctuary can be found at Olallie at Green Lake, a new blog which is authored by Monica O’Neill:

Green Lake Garden Club is a group of parents at Green Lake Elementary School who wanted to do something beautiful and lasting to the existing native plant garden called “Olallie Native Plant and Wildlife Sanctuary”.

Certified through The National Wildlife Federation and the Washington Department of Wildlife, Olallie Garden is a 6,000 square foot Native Garden and Wildlife Sanctuary located on the grounds of Green Lake Elementary School.  This educational garden was planted 17 years ago by a group of dedicated and hardworking parents at Green Lake Elementary School.  Using a Neighborhood Matching Fund Grant from the City and lots of volunteerism, these parents transformed a marshy patch of grass into a natural landscape delighting wild birds, students and neighbors alike.  Today, a new generation of PTA parents are looking to improve and enhance this natural habitat.  Olallie Native Garden and Wildlife Sanctuary goes beyond a mere “park”.  By focusing on native plant specimens, Olallie provides a living “archive” for these special plants that are overlooked by most gardeners.  The educational benefits extend from the students at the school learning about organic and sustainable gardening methods and earth stewardship and into the neighborhood with opportunities to observe wild birds in a natural habitat.