To help raise awareness and community involvement in the pollinator crisis and decline, ScottsMiracle-Gro and Ortho teams educated children, families and community members about what they can do to help pollinators.
This is part of their Gro More Good commitment to connect 10 million kids to the benefits of gardens and greenspaces by 2023, and more specifically, to promote pollinator education and protection to America’s youngest generation of gardeners.
During National Pollinator Week, Ortho sponsored Pollinator Palooza at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Columbus, Ohio. This fun-filled day focused on hands-on learning opportunities, demonstrations and activities to educate the community about the importance of pollinators and how to help protect them.
Their Ortho team hosted an education station where they conducted pollinator activities with kids and educated adults on how to use products responsibly, with as little impact to pollinators as possible.
At Pollinator Palooza, ScottsMiracle-Gro and the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) also hosted a Pollinator BioBlitz. A BioBlitz event involves park staff, community members, families and children working together to create a snapshot of the variety of life that can be found in a local park or open space.
The BioBlitz uses the iNaturalist platform—a website and app that helps facilitate BioBlitzes––which families could download on a smart device and use to take photographs of plants, insects and animals to see what wildlife is present in their local park. The results help raise awareness of pollinators nationally and also help park and recreation agencies know what pollinator species are in their parks and help them plan for how to protect them.