Seed Swap & Giveaway

5917 North Broadway,Chicago IL 60660

26 February, 2023

Description

Bring any native, rain garden, vegetable, fruit, and herb seeds to share and trade with others! You never know what you’ll find – gardeners are generous people, after all. Plus, MWRD Commissioner Mariyana Spyropoulos will be giving away free Milkweed seeds, part of the Save the Monarchs program This event is FREE and open to the public. Everyone welcome! Reconnect with old friends and meet new ones as we all get excited about growing together! Attendees can bring reusable items (jars, envelopes, a writing utensil, labels, etc); there will also be all the materials for you to have and use onsite. Including envelopes and seed processing materials. Another great thing about this event? No need to be a gardener to participate. We kindly ask for attendees to wear a mask while swapping. Lend us a hand and volunteer for the Seed Swap - come early, stay after, or even hang with us the whole time! To volunteer, email [email protected]. Hosted by MWRD Commissioner Mariyana Spyropoulos who is one of Chicago’s leading advocates for transparency in good government, fiscal responsibility, and environmental stewardship. Elected to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board of Commissioners in 2010, re-elected in 2016 and 2022. She served as Board President from 2015-19. A former Assistant State's Attorney, she has her Juris Doctorate from University of Illinois at Chicago Law School and Masters from Loyola University Chicago. The mission of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) is to protect the health and safety of the public in its service area, protect the quality of the water supply source (Lake Michigan), improve the quality of water in watercourses in its service area, protect business and homes from flood damages and manage water as a vital resource for its service area. The MWRD collects wastewater from municipalities in its service area, conveys it to wastewater reclamation plants, provides full secondary treatment and discharges clean water to local waterways. The MWRD is also responsible for stormwater management for all of Cook County, including areas outside of the MWRD’s corporate boundaries for wastewater services. Rain garden plantings commonly include wetland edge vegetation, such as wildflowers, sedges, rushes, ferns, shrubs and small trees. Rain gardens are one of a variety of practices designed to increase rain runoff reabsorption by the soil. They can also be used to treat polluted stormwater runoff. Co-Hosted by the Edgewater Environmental Coalition, the Rogers Park Seed Library, the Edgewater Chicago Public Library, Alderman Harry Osterman, State Senator Mike Simmons, State Representative Kelly M. Cassidy, and Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer. The Rogers Park Seed Library is a volunteer collective interested in cultivating deeper relationships with seeds in the broader Chicago area. We are committed to providing free fruit, vegetable, and native plant seeds to our community. We are cultivating space for collaborative learning to develop seeds saving skills. We honor the truth that seeds are living beings connecting us to place, culture, history, and story. As students of seeds we give deep thanks for the lessons seeds offer us around adaptability, abundance, reciprocity, and generosity as we seek to embody these principles. More @rogersparkseedlibrary on IG. The Edgewater Environmental Coalition is a 10+ year old 100% volunteer organization leading on the ground projects in our communities and advocating for environmentally related legislation and change. More information at edgewaterenvironmentalcoalition.org