earth care news
Helping Hands:
Front row: Heather Menjivar, Juli Barnes, Jennifer Marsh, Laura Renauld
Back row: Kathy Brown, Jon Klinkman.
Not shown: Kathy Bleau, Bob Duffey, Beth Shockley, David Shockley
National Wildlife Federation Certifies New Wildlife Habitat Garden at Leesburg Presbyterian Church
Leesburg, Virginia – August, 2025
Leesburg Presbyterian Church has successfully created a Certified Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation’s Garden for Wildlife™ movement.
In 2023, Leesburg Presbyterian was certified by the Presbytery as an Earth Care Congregation. The church has pledged to be sustainable in four areas: worship, education, outreach, and facilities. The Earth Care Team recently created a garden to support birds, butterflies, bees, frogs, and other wildlife. Rev. Katie Strednak Singer reflected on the project, saying, “As people of faith, we’re called to be caretakers of God’s creation. Our hope is that this small but thriving habitat will inspire others to nurture a patch of earth wherever they live — for the good of the planet and the generations to come.”
In late 2024, volunteers removed the previous landscaping and invasives from the beds along West Market Street. Heather Menjivar, of Hidden Lane Residential Landscapes and a church member, created the new landscape plan and assisted the team with the purchase of 84 Virginia native and pollinator friendly shrubs and plants. In early spring 2025, a large crew of volunteers met over two days to prepare the soil, plant, and mulch the new plants. Now those who walk along West Market Street will see an abundance of native flowers and natural sources of food, water, cover, and places for our local wildlife to raise young.
The Helping Hands in the Garden Team have maintained the new pollinator garden this summer and strives to be sustainable by conserving water and not relying on pesticides. The Earth Care Team is looking forward to upgrading other areas on the church property. The goal is to continue to be careful, humble stewards of this earth, and to protect and restore it for its own sake, and for the future use and enjoyment of the human family.
Leesburg Presbyterian Church, 207 W. Market St., Leesburg, holds worship services each Sunday morning at 10 a.m.
One of LPC’s own, Elias Brock, was recognized in the Bay Journal for environmental advocacy, which started at just 9 years old! He advocated, along with his friend Aila McGregor, for goats to help get rid of weeds by a stream next to Dry Mill Road. Read the article here.
“… the Leesburg Town Council and Environmental Advisory Commission (EAC) Chair Paul Sheaffer presented the Earth Care Team of Leesburg Presbyterian Church with the 2024 Tolbert Award for Environmental Stewardship. This award recognizes outstanding contributions to sustainability and conservation within the local community.”
- Leesburg.gov
Leesburg Presbyterian Church’s Earth Care Congregation program was recognized with a feature story on the Presbyterian Mission U.S.A. website. The environmental story shares the wonderful work the preschool program has done to educate our young disciples on the importance of composting and recycling.
