Hands in the Dirt, Seeds From the Sky

The event, hosted annually by the Office of Sustainability in partnership with the University Facilities Management Grounds Department, serves as one of the signature hands-on volunteer opportunities for Campus Sustainability Month every October.

“This is one of the things we do for Campus Sustainability Month as a fun event that also creates a pollinator habitat on campus,” Leah Graham, sustainability coordinator in the Office of Sustainability, told Kent State Today.  

Kent State is recognized as a Bee Campus USA affiliate by the Xerces Society, a designation the university has held since 2024. Events like seedball making directly support that mission by establishing critical habitats for local bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

“We’re trying to create something that is not only kind to insects and humans but our waterways, and this whole view of what Kent State is really going for,” said Rebekkah Berryhill, the grounds manager in University Facilities Management for the Kent Campus.

Berryhill provided the seeds for the project this year. She collaborates closely with the Office of Sustainability to maintain and monitor planting sites and manage the impact the university has on the environment.

“We need to look at our sustainability practices, so that it ticks off more things than just being a ‘bee campus,’ than just being a ‘tree campus,’” Berryhill said. “We have some highly manicured spaces, which is fine, and there's a need for it. But we have almost 1,000 acres. So if we can find ways to eliminate the need to purchase the big equipment that we would use to mow these sites, this reduces fuel costs and the amount of labor that it takes.”

Students discovered the seedball-making opportunity through friends, the university calendar and Helper Helper, the volunteer portal managed by the Center for Student Involvement.

“I was looking at the volunteering website for the school and found this,” Cianna Robertson, a junior accounting major, said. “I’m really glad I’m here.”

“I was invited by my friend, actually,” Tersheena Clayton, a sophomore neuroscience major, said, motioning to Robertson. “But I love volunteering. At high school, I did all the time.”

For returning students, the appeal was simple: a quick, impactful way to give back to both the campus community and the environment.

“I came back with my sorority because we like to help out in the community and get service hours, and this was one I really enjoyed last year,” Lexi Glaser, a junior marketing major who brought friends along for this year's session, said. “It’s only an hour of your time, playing with clay, but you’re helping out the environment too.”

Isabel Traska, a senior botany major and student coordinator for the Office of Sustainability, noted that the project serves a dual purpose for campus outreach.

“It’s a good way to get people involved in pollinator communities, especially majors that don’t usually think about the environment as much,” Traska said. “It’s also a great way to introduce people to the greenhouse space, since a lot of people don’t realize this is here and open to the public.”

Berryhill said this year’s seeds include a mixture of native perennials, including common milkweed, flowers and grasses like little and big bluestem and nodding wild rye. This year’s crop of seedballs rolled by the volunteers tallied 401.

“And then we have a few little pops of color,” Berryhill said. “We have some ironweed, wild bergamot, butterfly weed, some coreopsis. It’s just kind of a survival of the fittest deal with those.”

The location for the Oct. 14 toss this year was in the field near the Kent Broadcast Center between Loop Road and Seiberling Drive.

So, on a gray and slightly rainy Wednesday morning, Berryhill, grounds staff, Graham and Traska from the Office of Sustainability, and nine students walked the field and launched the dried seedballs across the designated pollinator zone. 

"What we want to do is try to out-compete that non-desired vegetation to allow us to feed our native populations of insects, and then all up through the food chain," Berryhill told the assembled group. “So dig in, and chuck away.”

Sophia Como, a sophomore exploratory student, was there for both the making of the seedballs and the launching of them into the field. She threw the inaugural seedball to start the 2026 launch.

"It's really fun to see it going back to Kent," Como said. “Now that I actually get to see it and do it, it just makes you feel really good to give back to the community.”

Faith Schreiber, a senior speech pathology and audiology major, came to the launch event for some volunteer hours, but also because the mission is important to her.  

"I’ve grown up with a huge garden; my mom loves gardening,” Schreiber said. “I come from a very rural area, so I’ve always been interested in the environment and pollinators."

The dried seedballs hold everything the plants need to grow.  

"These little seed bombs give a head start,” Berryhill said. “Clay keeps things together and holds moisture, so when water penetrates, the seeds are ready to go. Simply by tossing something, we're creating life."

Berryhill expects plants to emerge by next spring, with blooms in 2028, but major results will be seen in 2029. As the plants take root, so does the idea that this project is a part of something greater.  

"When those big ideas of where we fit into this world click earlier, we prepare people to realize this is important to future generations,” Berryhill said. “The earlier that you gain a sense of things bigger than yourself, your ties with communities are just greater."

And the students already see the value. They’re not just here for volunteer hours; they’re here to make a difference.

"Bees are super huge to the environment,” Schreiber said, throwing balls into the wet field. “If that pollination doesn't happen, stuff doesn't grow. Our food doesn't grow. They're huge for the environment, and a big area like this needs places for pollinators."  

See the full slate of Campus Sustainability Month programming.