LEVERETT — Over the next few months, a bird nook will appear in the library of Leverett Elementary School.

There will be outdoor bird feeders, bird charts, bird identification information, and bird guidebooks and textbooks. Students will even have the opportunity to submit videos to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch, which consists of a collection of videos caught by bird feeder cameras.

This project, as well as several others, will be funded by five grants totaling $19,000 given by the Leverett Education Foundation.

“$19,000 is more or less what we raised last year,” said Steve Weiss, president of the foundation, which got its start in 2019.

Weiss said the organization was thrown for a loop when COVID-19 hit shortly after its official beginning as a nonprofit. Rather than using the money they raised to help develop Leverett Elementary School’s programs, the foundation had to use the funds to help the elementary school sustain itself during the pandemic.

In the last two years, however, they have been able to use the funds to create new programs and revitalize old ones.

Along with the construction of the Bird Nook, the money will be used to help rebuild the greenhouse at Leverett Elementary. When the greenhouse had its 10th anniversary two years ago, it was in a dilapidated state. For the past two years, the school has been working to make it usable, and a portion of this year’s grant money will be used to further this process.

In a similar fashion, the grant money will be used to entirely rebuild Leverett Elementary’s low-ropes challenge course. This course was created and maintained by a former employee who has since left the school. With the grant money, there will be a new course constructed in time for school to begin this fall.

A portion of the $19,000 will be used to begin a summer garden and nature program next year, and finally, the grants will be used to establish a principal’s discretionary fund for the school year.

Weiss said the Leverett Education Fund and elementary school officials agreed to establish the fund for the school to use when it needed money on short notice. This fund might be used by the principal, Annie Foley Ruiz, to allow students to go on field trips or support teachers’ training programs.

The majority of the $19,000 raised by the fund was gathered through a mail-in donation campaign. Additionally, there were notices put in the town newsletter and donations from local businesses.

These programs were previously restricted by the elementary school’s budget, so the foundation stepped in to act as outside support. The foundation’s next campaign is scheduled to begin this fall, Weiss said.

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