Middle School Student Leads Service Project to Beautify Palisades

This spring, eighth grader Rummy Goodyear launched the initiative “Seed Bombs for Palisades” as part of his service learning commitment in Middle School. During snack and lunch on May 29 and 30, Rummy set up stations in the Alley for students to make “seed bombs,” small clusters of wildflower seeds mixed with soil and clay to be distributed in burn zones to help regrow native plants. 

For Rummy, the project is personal. After his family lost their home in January’s Palisades fire, he wanted to do something to give back to the community that meant so much to him. 

“I thought this would be a really good way to empower the community to do something good and give back to the Palisades because I feel like the Palisades gave so much to us,” said Rummy. “It gave us a spot for everyone to hang out. Everything there is gone, but I feel like the greenery and nature doesn't also have to be gone. This is a project to bring back flowers as a part of giving back to the Palisades.”

Rummy’s goal was for the student community to make 1,128 seed bombs—one for every Crossroads student—as a symbol of collective commitment to ecological restoration. The response far exceeded Rummy’s expectations. On the first day, students were already lining up to participate. 

“At first, I didn’t know if people would show up, but yesterday we had like 40 people here,” marveled Rummy. “In one day alone, we made 982 seed bombs!”

In addition to asking Middle and Upper School students to get involved, Rummy reached out to the Elementary School to see if he could teach younger students about the role seed bombs can play in restoring natural landscapes. He visited a second grade science class where students had just finished learning about nature’s decomposers, such as earthworms, insects and other invertebrates, and the work they do to restore nutrients to the soil so that plants can grow. After his presentation, Rummy showed the Elementary Schoolers how to make seed bombs using California poppy seeds. The second graders made almost 250 seed bombs—combined with those made at the Middle and Upper School, Crossroads students made more than 2,000 seed bombs over the course of just two days. 

Early this June, Rummy invited Crossroads community members to join him and his family as they distributed the seed bombs in the Palisades. Partnering with Crayon Collection, a nonprofit dedicated to upcycling crayons and other school supplies for those in need, Seed Bombs for Palisades shared 500 seed bombs with Palisades residents at the neighborhood’s Banners of Hope event. Additionally, Rummy is working with the nonprofits Palisades Beautiful and Altadena Seed Library to distribute the seed bombs to other fire-impacted zones. 

Bringing the community together is another way his project serves to build something beautiful out of the loss and devastation of January’s fires, perfectly encapsulating the power of service learning and what the School’s program hopes to instill.

“The fire caused major disruption, and what follows is succession or the rebuilding of the ecosystem,” said Middle School Dean and Service Learning Coordinator Sara Luke. “That’s where we can contribute, by helping native flowers take over the Palisades, giving all a vision that after disruption comes new and beautiful things. Using ecology and nature as a teacher.”