Limestone students turn deforestation project into Phoenix Gallery fundraiser

Three Limestone Community School students are taking a classroom study of deforestation out of the lesson plan and into downtown Lawrence, where their handmade goods will fill Phoenix Gallery for one evening and raise money for rainforest reforestation in Costa Rica.

Naomi Haden, Harper Steinle and Ace Gunslemen will host the art-based pop-up shop Saturday, May 9, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Phoenix Gallery, 825 Massachusetts St. The fundraiser is the capstone to their research on deforestation and reforestation, and it gives Lawrence residents a chance to see project-based learning turn into a public event with a direct cause attached.

Instead of stopping at a presentation or poster board, the students built the shop itself as part of the assignment. They made cloth napkins dyed with turmeric, red cabbage and black walnut as an alternative to paper towels, and they produced recycled paper from classroom waste. The items were designed after classmates pushed them to think about everyday products that contribute to forest loss, turning the project into a practical exercise in how small consumer choices connect to larger environmental damage.

Madeline Herrera, Limestone’s founder and director, said the project fits the school’s model. Limestone opened in Lawrence in the fall of 2022 as an independent school centered on project-based learning and a reimagined school experience. Herrera said the students had already worked on projects about oceans, prairies and wetlands, making deforestation a natural next step for a school built around hands-on inquiry.

The money raised at Phoenix Gallery will go to Community Carbon Trees, a nonprofit that says it plants biodiverse tropical forests in Costa Rica and employs local Costa Rican men and women to plant and maintain trees. The organization says it has operated since 2009, giving the students’ fundraiser a direct link to an established reforestation effort rather than an abstract environmental cause.

The event also puts a familiar downtown space to work in a different way. Phoenix Gallery, long known as a place for local, regional and national art, often participates in community and charitable events. For one night, it will become both a classroom extension and a storefront, showing how a Lawrence school project can move from research to action and leave neighbors with something tangible to buy, support and talk about.