Congratulations to the 2021 Little Seeds Pollinators Pal Grant Winners!
The Little Seeds Pollinator Pals Grant presented by Little Seeds and KidsGardening is designed to support youth garden programs interested in preserving and creating pollinator habitat to help rebuild declining pollinator populations. The following eighteen programs will be awarded a check for $500 to support the development of new and expansion of existing pollinator gardens in communities across the United States.
2021 Little Seeds Pollinator Pals Winners
DATkids Academy (Indianapolis, Indiana)
DATkids Academy will build a new pollinator garden with the help of a local nursery and conservatory to enhance experiential garden and nature-based educational opportunities for a homeschool co-op.
Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District (Portsmouth, Rhode Island)
A new designated pollinator habitat will be built alongside an apiary and educational pollinator trail at the 5 acre Portsmouth AgInnovation demonstration farm.
Fremont County School District #38 (Arapahoe, Wyoming)
Located on the Wind River Indian Reservation, the Arapahoe Elementary School of the Fremont County School District #38 will install a pollinator garden and bee hives to enhance current garden programming and Arapaho language revitalization efforts.
Growing Hope (Ypsilanti, Michigan)
Growing Hope will develop a pollinator garden to teach youth, educators, and adults about the habitat requirements of native pollinators and hopes to inspire others to create pollinator habitats at their homes, schools, and farms.
Hennessey Early Childhood Center (Hennessey, Oklahoma)
Educators at Hennessey Early Childhood Center are excited to integrate a pollinator bed into their classroom garden space to provide Pre-K students with hands-on learning opportunities that will improve fine and gross motor skills, language skills, and problem-solving skills.
Kermit R. Booker, Sr. Innovative Elementary School (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Kermit R. Booker, Sr. Innovative Elementary School’s new pollinator garden will allow them to join a cohort of over 50 other Las Vegas schools with native pollinator habitats.
Kerr Elementary (Mesa, Arizona)
As part of an initiative to integrate agriscience topics into classes, teachers at Kerr Elementary are looking forward to creating a pollinator “land lab” where students can learn about the importance of pollinators within the agricultural sector.
Majestic Elementary Arts Academy (West Jordan, Utah)
Educators at Majestic Elementary Arts Academy plan to create a water-wise perennial habitat for pollinators that can be used to help students learn about science, art, and their local community.
Mossy Oaks Elementary School (Beaufort, South Carolina)
Mossy Oaks Elementary School will install a pollinator sensory garden that will include bee houses, a butterfly puddling area, and a water garden to support aquatic pollinator host plants.
New Directions for Women, Inc. (Costa Mesa, California)
A new pollinator garden complete with a butterfly mural wall, will be added to New Directions for Women, Inc.’s campus, where children can participate in residential recovery programs with their mothers.
Parker Academic Center (Charlotte North Carolina)
K-5 students at Parker Academic Center will help plan and design an addition to the school’s pollinator garden as part of a study unit related to ecological and sustainability.
Peace Project-Peace Arts (New Smyrna Beach, Florida)
The Peace Project-Peace Arts will add additional Pollinator Stations and Busy Bee Zones to their current pollinator habitat in an effort to enhance learning opportunities about the symbiotic relationships between plants and pollinators.
PS 24 Brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York)
The new pollinator garden at PS 24 Brooklyn will be used in conjunction with the school’s Expeditionary Learning Literacy Curriculum; students will spend 5 months reading books, watching videos, and writing opinion pieces and nonfiction reports about pollinators and their global importance.
Ron Russell Middle School (Portland, Oregon)
Members of an afterschool Nature Club at Ron Russell Middle School will help create a pollinator garden at a nearby community garden space.
Schoolyard Roots (Tuscaloosa, Alabama)
Schoolyard Roots will help install a pollinator garden at Flatwoods Elementary School that will consist of a mix of drought tolerant annual and perennial fruiting and flowering plants.
UChicago Charter School Woodlawn Campus (Chicago, Illinois)
Educators are excited to add to the Woodlawn Pollinator Project, which supports horticultural-focused internship and community service opportunities for high school students.
Vista Condor Global Academy (Santa Ana, California)
The new pollinator garden at Vista Condor Global Academy will highlight native California flowers and historically and culturally relevant perennials that will help connect students to their Latinx Indigenous heritage.
Weddington Elementary (Greenville, Mississippi)
Weddington Elementary will add a pollinator space to their existing school garden, with the hopes that over the years perennial plants can be divided or propagated and shared with students so that they can plant them in their own yards to further spread healthy pollinator habitat throughout the community.