Six Port Washington sophomores walked into a state competition last month armed with research about lawn chemicals. They walked out with a first-place finish and something none of them saw coming: a movement.
The team calls itself Grassroots 4 Change. Its members, all students at Paul D. Schreiber High School in Nassau County, are Jake Leber, Boden Smith, Rowan Danow, Stella Mei, Jackson Brous and Jamison Hershman. What started as an entry in Destination Imagination, an international student creativity competition, has grown into a full environmental awareness campaign aimed squarely at their own backyards.
Literally.
“We started by asking simple questions about what’s being sprayed on our lawns,” the team said. “When we learned that chemicals like glyphosate, 2,4-D, and atrazine are linked to serious health risks, we knew we had to do something.”
Glyphosate, perhaps the most widely used herbicide in the United States, has been the subject of significant scientific and legal scrutiny over its potential links to cancer and environmental damage. Atrazine, another common lawn and agricultural chemical, has been found to disrupt aquatic ecosystems even at low concentrations. These aren’t abstract concerns for communities like Port Washington, where residential neighborhoods sit close to the water.
The group didn’t form naturally. That was the point.
Lainie Leber, a parent and former New York City educator who manages the team, spent time deliberately pulling together students with different strengths. An engineer. A multimedia storyteller. A builder. A future lawyer. A performer. She wanted a team that looked less like a school project group and more like an actual working team.
“Life is interdisciplinary,” she said. “You need an artist, an engineer, a writer. No matter what industry you’re in, you need all different people to make something happen. But in high school, there’s no thought about bringing together interdisciplinary teams like that.”
She recruited by instinct and memory. One student caught her attention because of a story she’d heard years earlier, about a girl who had once built a ladder to climb out of her bedroom wall. Another she remembered as a standout orator from a middle school mock trial. A friend’s daughter with a passion for multimedia, she thought, could use a new creative outlet.
“It just kind of evolved,” Leber said. “One person led to another.”
The team meets every Sunday. Destination Imagination gave them a structure to work within, but it was a conversation with North Hempstead Town Council Member Mariann Dalimonte that gave them their actual cause. When the students reached out asking what issues most needed attention in their community, Dalimonte didn’t hesitate. Toxic lawn chemicals and their runoff into Manhasset Bay.
“Our town councilwoman inspired us with her dedication to our local environment and waterways,” said Boden Smith. “Working with her on an idea that could have real and lasting local impact made this feel real.”
So the students went to work. Months of research into agrochemicals, water runoff, and ecosystem damage followed. Not exactly the stuff of teenage excitement. But Smith pushed back on that read.
“Researching agrochemicals, dirt and runoff doesn’t sound glamorous,” he said, “but bringing this project to life has been really exciting.”
The team built a website, designed infographics, and produced social media content aimed at reaching Port Washington neighbors who might not think twice about what they spray on their grass every spring. Then they took it a step further, translating their research into a live theatrical performance, which became the centerpiece of their Destination Imagination submission. First place in New York State.
The thing is, winning was almost beside the point by then. These six kids had already started doing outreach. Already talking to neighbors. Already thinking about what comes next.
Grassroots 4 Change reflects a broader concern that environmental advocates in Nassau County have been raising for years: Long Island’s dense residential development, heavy lawn care culture, and proximity to bays and inlets creates real runoff risk. Manhasset Bay, like much of Long Island Sound’s tributaries, has faced water quality challenges tied in part to nitrogen and chemical pollution from surrounding neighborhoods.
This reporting draws on coverage from Long Island Press.
Whether six sophomores can shift how Port Washington thinks about lawn care is a big question. But they’ve already done something most adults haven’t. They found a local problem, learned everything they could about it, and started telling people. That’s not nothing. For a group that didn’t even know each other a year ago, it’s actually pretty remarkable.