INNER GENIUS: Program aims to bring mental wellness to schools

allowing them that freedom and space to be vulnerable and raw, not only with themselves but with one another,” Fry said.

Connecting with others is another big part of improving well-being, Fry added. “When you sit with a group and share with the peers that are around you, they don’t feel alone, they feel a sense of belonging. There’s power in that connection.”

McCarty elaborated with a bit of scientific insight: “When you have connection and people want to share in a group setting, it activates a part of your nervous system that helps everyone self-regulate,” she said.

“When you go to the grocery store and someone smiles at you, it activates your nervous system for pleasure by having that vulnerable connection.”

The Mental Emotional Mastery program will include grade-specific workbooks that teach children emotional intelligence and regulation.

Each workbook will feature one of nine basic emotions, but the onemonth pilot will focus entirely on the emotion of joy.

The program has received a $5,000 grant from the PATCH Foundation, which provides support to childbased community organizations that address poverty, homelessness, emotional well-being, illiteracy, illness and lack of education. The Inner Genius team is also looking to connect with other area organizations and nonprofits interested in collaborating on children’s mental health.

“There’s more violence than there’s ever been, more emotional dysregulation, more fights, from not understanding their own biology and how they feel,” McCarty said. “[Fry] and I really felt this calling to help these children have a different experience so they can support themselves and each other.”

“To be a strong leader and be successful, you need to know yourself and how to interact with your peers around you,” Fry said. “Schools are working more on mental health nowadays, but we need that mental wellness, that emotional intelligence. That’s another piece to the puzzle to forming a more rounded individual.”

The Mental Emotional Mastery pilot will take place in four 45-minute sessions with students in Kristen Konop’s fifth grade class during the month of May. Students will participate in small-group discussion, have open conversations about

Grounding Exercises To Try At Home

Grounding techniques are exercises that help you refocus on the present moment to distract yourself from anxious or uncomfortable feelings.

1. Practice self-kindness: Repeat these phrases to yourself: “You’re having a hard time, but you’ll get through this”; “You’re strong, and you can move through this pain”; “You’re trying hard and you’re doing your best.” emotions, practice mindfulness and engage their creative sides with a joyfocused art project.

2. Put your hands in water: Focus on the water’s temperature and how it feels on your fingertips, palms, and the back of your hands. Does it feel the same on each part of your hand? Use warm water first, then cold. Next try cold water first, then warm. Does it feel different to switch from cold to warm or warm to cold?

If all goes well, the Inner Genius leaders plan to approach the school board about incorporating the program into more classes in the district. Learn more about Mental Emotional Mastery and Inner Genius at https://www.innergenius.org/.

Because native plants have been present on the landscape for millennia, animal species utilize them heavily. Mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects use native plant communities across seasons and habitats for food and cover.

This is especially true for insects, many of which have suffered severe declines in population due to intensive farming, development, pesticides and other factors. Some have very specific plant needs for their life cycles.

One example is the Karner blue, a small butterfly classified as endangered in Minnesota. It requires habitats which include wild lupine (Lupinus perennis), the only plant Karner blue caterpillars eat. Due to overwhelming loss of those habitats, it is possible that only one site in the state still maintains a population of this rare species.

Monarch butterflies, which were classified as endangered last year by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, famously require milkweed for the production of their caterpillars. While there are several native milkweeds suitable for monarchs, they (and other butterflies) also need nectar-producing plants throughout the season. There are many such plants endemic to this region, including Meadow blazing star (Liatris ligulistylis), Stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida), Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) and Purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea).

Monarch Joint Venture (MJV) is a national partnership network for monarch and pollinator conservation headquartered in St. Paul. Executive Director Wendy Caldwell says homeowners can make meaningful impacts on behalf of pollinators.

“We embrace this research called ‘All Hands on Deck,’ which basically shows that to reach our monarch conservation goals—which can serve as a proxy for pollinator population goals—we need all hands on deck to get there. Getting homeowners to convert their lawn to more native plants, to pollinator habitat, certainly contributes to that collective goal of restoring pollinator populations.”

Caldwell says anything helps, and that discontinuing pesticides is critical: “With species like monarchs, more is always better. But monarchs use a lot of different kinds of habitat.

No habitat is too small ... Remember, when you’re planting pollinator habitat, you’ll be attracting insects. So don’t use things that kill insects.”

Establishing a native garden can be done in a few simple steps:

1. Identify a site, preferably with good sun exposure.

2. Assess the soil in order to determine which plants will do well there.

3. Select plants that will bloom at different times, and from sellers that offer local genetic strains.

4. Keep plants watered for the first few weeks, and through any drought conditions in the first growing season.

An alternative to drier, prairie-like plantings is rain gardens. Designed to improve water quality by capturing runoff, they can replace grass in what is often the most parched portion of lawns: the boulevard. Native species adapted to moist soils are usually best, like Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium maculatum). By coupling a rain garden with other plantings, one can easily multiply the number of native plant species in one yard by a factor of two or more.

In preparing to convert turf grass to more beneficial vegetation, there are many good websites to consult, including Monarch Joint Venture and the Xerces Society, for information about things like how to kill existing grass without using herbicides.

Funds may also be available. Lawns to Legumes is a Minnesota cost-share program for establishing pollinator habitat (bwsr.state.mn.us). Ramsey County offers cost sharing and technical assistance for rain gardens and native plantings; consult its Soil & Water Conservation webpage for more information.

Roy Heilman is a contributing writer for Press Publications. He can be reached at news@presspubs.com or 651-407-1200.