Your Raffle Ticket Can Teach Local School Children About the Monarch's’ Magnificent Migration!
Residential pollinator garden
Just as monarch butterflies are migrating across our Blue Ridge Mountains on their epic journey to the mountain sanctuaries in southern Mexico for the winter, Asheville GreenWorks’ Bee City USA Leadership Committee and the Asheville office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service are excited to announce they are partnering with Asheville and Buncombe County Schools to offer the Symbolic Monarch Migration program: www.eealliance.org/symbolic-migration.html.
Before October 10th, teachers in Asheville and Buncombe County Schools must register their classes to participate in this program that pairs American classrooms with Mexican classrooms. To receive a free registration, they should contact beecityasheville@gmail.com. According to the program, “In fall 2022, nearly 10,000 youth in the U.S. and Canada created symbolic butterflies and sent them to Mexico for the winter. Students in schools near the Mexican monarch sanctuaries protected the butterflies and sent them north in spring 2023. These symbolic butterflies build bridges of communication between students in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. United by the monarch butterfly, children across North America learn authentic lessons of conservation, cooperation, and ambassadorship. Read about the Mexican school visits at https://symbolicmigration.org/ .”
You can help! The more Asheville and Buncombe County teachers who engage their students in monarch butterfly education, the better! For GreenWorks to pay for the $15 Symbolic Monarch Migration registration fee, GreenWorks’ Bee City program is hosting a pollinator habitat raffle throughout the month of September. Each raffle ticket costs $25 and only 200 tickets will be sold for this custom 10’ x 10’ pollinator habitat. If GreenWorks sells 200 tickets, that could cover more than 300 teachers’ registrations!
The winning pollinator habitat will use the plants that are native to Western North Carolina, featured in the Asheville GreenWorks’ Bee City USA Recommended Species List, available for download here (www.ashevillegreenworks.org/native-pollinators#lists). Fall is an ideal time to plant pollinator habitat to give young plants time to establish before the spring growth season. The Species List also features local native nurseries who grow these plants, managing pests responsibly with pollinators and the environment in mind.
Buy your raffle ticket while supplies last for yourself or a friend now at https://www.ashevillegreenworks.org/shop/p/pollinatorgardenraffle . The lucky winner will be announced on October 2, and their habitat will be installed in late October or early November.
Read about GreenWorks’ other monarch conservation work in this October 2022 blog post: https://www.ashevillegreenworks.org/blog/not-on-our-watchbee-city-avl-responds-to-monarch-threat .
