Summer 2025: Pollinator Pals Reflection

by Ethan Robison, Pollinator Pals Education Coordinator

Wow! This past summer has undoubtedly been the best, busiest, and most successful season in Pollinator Pals history! In our efforts to bring native plant and pollinator ecology education to Southern Oregon, we are developing a robust and effective program that somehow keeps up with the demand for fun and engaging lessons. Thanks to our staff, volunteers, community partners, and of course our fellow community members, we have been able to provide an unprecedented level of youth engagement this past summer. In plain terms, we've been working hard, and connected to hundreds of students with new and improved lessons, activities, and more! 

This blog reviews some of our highlights since June 20th, the first day of summer 2025.  All of us at PPRV are proud to share these successes, and we are incredibly appreciative, since none of this - from Moth Night to summer camps - would have been possible without this amazing community. So without further ado, please enjoy this Summer 2025 Pollinator Pals Reflection!

To kick off this countdown, we'll start with a Pollinator Pals first! On the first day of summer, June 21st, we held our first Pollinator Pals fundraiser! Partnering with the Farm Bus Bistro and Arpeggio Vineyards, we set up tables for music, crafts, garden and farm tours, and of course, microscopes. More than 50 community members showed up - despite the cold and rainy weather - to show their support for our unique brand of education. Lepidopterist Dana Ross, Phoenix Mayor Al Muelhoefer, ScienceWorks Executive Director Gabriela Chavarria, Friends of Cascade Siskiyou National Monument Executive Director Daniel Collay, and many more, including some inquisitive kids, all arrived to share stories, eat some tasty food, and tour the pollinator garden. Enjoy photos from the afternoon here.

Ethan and Pollinator Pals Community Educator Eduardo Tovar

Clay of Arpeggio Vineyards (red hat) ready to lead a tour of the land

The Farm Bus Bistro Pollinator Garden was created in 2024, thanks to a wonderful 5th grade class from the Medford Montessori and beautiful plants donated by the Xerces Society. You can learn more about that fun (hmmmm, and rainy) day in our photo album here.

It brings me an indescribable amount of joy to see so many people care about bugs and plants, little things that might at first seem insignificant. Sometimes the world seems big and terrifying, but taking time to care about things that are small and wonderful is genuinely inspiring. We are lucky to have the support of so many people, but more importantly, the plants and pollinators of Southern Oregon are lucky to have the support of all these amazing folks who care.

Thanks to our Pollinator Pals Community Educator Eduardo Torvar (Eddie, Ed, Egg, Eddie the Bee, Cheese, or Edward for short), we have been able to bring our education program to the Spanish speaking community in Southern Oregon. We partnered with Milagros Morales from the Jackson County Library Service to plan two different pollinator-themed family days. Eddie, along with volunteer Arti, went to the White City Library to read stories in Spanish to the 15 participants. Afterwards, everyone talked about Monarch Butterflies (Mariposas Monarcas), looked at intricate butterfly scales under the microscopes, and crafted winged-face masks. Two weeks later, Eddie packed up the supplies for the lesson  for the Central Point Library to deliver the same great stories, crafts, and lessons to a new group of families. This time, more people showed up to listen, share, and learn about amazing butterflies. After the programs, Milagros told us “these events had such a great turn out! I'm really glad we were able to make this happen!” We truly appreciate Eddie's efforts and skills, and the creative flair he brings to any program he runs. We look forward to scheduling more programs that serve and celebrate our Spanish-speaking community in Southern Oregon. 

Eddie and awesome PPRV volunteer Arti at the White City Library

We were thrilled to once again partner with the exuberant educators at Talent Maker City (TMC) to run a four-day summer program at Phoenix Elementary School. Thanks to the TMC staff - Sara, Lucia, Aiden, and Monse - we had students building 3D bee models, dissecting flowers, and building their own moth wings!

In the fall of 2024, we had worked with Rogue Valley Farm To School (another amazing local organization) to build a pollinator garden at Phoenix Elementary School. This summer, we had the kids exploring the garden every day to find new pollinators, strange looking caterpillars on leaves, little roly-polys underneath logs, and we were even lucky enough to have a Monarch Butterfly fly over our heads!

Not only does TMC work to teach folks marketable skills like woodworking, screen printing, ceramics, and fiber arts, but they also have a passion for pollinators! You can even find a pollinator garden (supported by Xerces Society plants) in front of their office in Talent–check it out some time! 

In between multi-day programs, we planned a big Pollinator Pals event up at The Crest at Willow Witt. Crest staff members Liz Bianco, Madi Ross, and Paul Sheldon helped us plan an event celebrating some of the least observed but most important pollinators around: moths. These (usually) nocturnal (often) pollinators can be found flying into your face, bonking into lamps, and otherwise flying around being mildly strange and possibly scary. But what’s really going on? Moth Night was all about delving into the lives and habits of the non-butterfly Lepidoptera. With the help of moth expert Dana Ross, we set up tarps and UV lamps to attract these enigmatic insects. After some arts, crafts, hikes, and presentations, the sun set and we huddled around the purple light of the UV lamps, waiting. It didn’t take long for moths to appear. First small ones, looking like the ones you might see munching on your clothes. But soon, large moths, fluffy moths, strangely bald moths, wood beetles, toe biters, and even elusive moths with 3-foot wingspans began to appear! Ok, the last ones were actually kids in homemade moth costumes! You can see all of these moths (and other fun things from the event) in this photo album. As the night went on, everyone got to observe dozens of these magnificent insects, and hear facts and stories from Dana and the other moth enthusiasts. 

Another mountainous excursion involved local Girl Scouts Troop 11480. Over the past year or so, thanks to the organizational efforts of mom Jenny and scout Julia, we enjoyed running three classes with the Troop. One class focused on seed cleaning, another on plant ID, and finally a lesson on the slopes of Mt. Ashland, where we took the group up to the Pacific Forest Trust Demonstration Forest. The kids got to hear from forestry expert Lyndia Hammer before hiking up to a blooming meadow full of lots of things to explore. There, the scouts took time to identify, record, and photograph different native plants and pollinators. Along the way, we sat down on a road to observe ground nesting bees, the entrances to their tunnels dotting the compacted soil beneath us. We even got to see small bright red and green cuckoo bees patiently waiting for their chance to lay their own eggs in the pre-provisioned nests. After more learning, identification, and photography, we shared snacks and drove back down the mountain. You can check out the photo album here. After the lesson, I worked with the Girl Scouts and the photos they took to develop stickers! Each of these stickers illustrates a different labeled native plant or pollinator - which we now sell at our office (hint, hint).

Ethan with some of the Girl Scouts at the Mt. Ashland Demonstration Forest

Another organization we have had the pleasure of working with this past summer is the Jacksonville Community Center (JCC). Their small building with a beautiful garden in the heart of Jacksonville offers classes, workshops, yoga lessons, historical presentations, bingo nights, and more! We have worked with JCC in the past, leading kids on scavenger hunts for pollinator habitat, creating bumblebee B&B's, and giving presentations on wildlife ID and photography. But this year we had the opportunity to run a three-day summer program all about plants and pollinators!. Over a dozen kids (including some super-helpful student volunteers) got to run around the park, learn about pollinators through game shows, visit the Beekman Arboretum for pollinator surveys, and plant their own native wildflower mixes. Each of these students left with the skills and knowledge to support pollinators in their own backyard! 

One of the most impactful moments from the program was having each student release their own Mourning Cloak butterfly. Special thanks to PPRV board member Sally Jeppson for noticing and sharing the caterpillars she found in her yard on an aspen tree. As if by magic, almost all of the butterflies emerged (eclosed) on the very last day of the program. You can check out the photo album here to see the magic!  We always enjoy working with Sarah Greco, who was such a huge help each day.. After the program ended, she said “this camp brought so much fun, learning, and connection to our community.” She let us know that the camp “was awesome and I hope we can do it again next year!” Overall, it was a success, and we’re so happy how it turned out. 

About a week after the Jacksonville Community Center lessons, the Pollinator Pals duo packed up Ethan's Subaru and took a road trip to Eugene. Our first stop was the Bethel Branch Library, where we filled the room with moth facts and crafts! Students spent their summer afternoon learning about the nocturnal Lepidoptera who hold so much mystery, and then decorated paper moths to blend in with library walls, tables, books, and even staff! Eddie used a toy bat (one of the moths’ most fearsome predators) to try and find the hidden moths. Immediately after that lesson, we left for the Downtown Branch library (which is amazing by the way) to run a seed cleaning lesson. To crush and filter the excess chaff surrounding valuable native wildflower seeds, the middle school students used the power of dance! Usually, PPRV volunteers use their hands and perhaps a rock to crush and remove the chaff, but personally I prefer using made-up dance moves. Afterwards, the kids all got to take home their own pollinator friendly seed mix!  After staying the night in a black and pink hip-hop themed hotel, we skedaddled to the Sheldon Branch Library to build bumblebee B&B’s. While the main focus of this lesson was bumblebees and their life cycles, students also had a fun time looking at specimens under the microscopes. After a quick kebab stop, Eddie and I returned to the Downtown Branch Library to deliver two lessons simultaneously. One was a repeat of the bumblebee B&B, but with an even larger group of students. Eddie did a spectacular job running this lesson alongside a couple of wonderful library staff. While Eddie was sprinting around dealing with paint and seed mixes (made by the students in the previous Downtown Branch lesson), I got to hang out with the cool teens and young adults to discuss career advice, science communication, rad bugs, and general life advice. Then, after grabbing a  coffee from the library cafe, we drove home to the good old Rogue Valley. Even with Eddie talking about birds the whole time, the whole journey was an amazing experience for us, and a successful undertaking for the Pollinator Pals program! Chelsi of the Eugene Library who helped coordinate everything, later said that “having you here was wonderful, and all the branches really enjoyed your programming. We will most certainly invite you back again!” We love working with libraries, and greatly appreciate the educational opportunities they provide us and the community. 

Eddie teaching about beans (it's a seed) at a Eugene Library

Now, here’s the best for last: our most ambitious program to date happened during the last two weeks of August, with Armadillo Community Charter School (ACCS) in Phoenix. Their wonderful program is specifically designed to support students who have struggled with traditional schooling and need different approaches to help achieve academic success. Teachers like Brian Pike and Celina Weeg, along with the rest of the amazing staff, all do a superb job. Because we had worked with Armadillo previously, Rachel Garner, the director, invited PPRV to teach a two-week course of daily three-hour lessons about native plants and pollinators. The Summer Learning Project would culminate in the creation of a pollinator garden on site. Although we ended up with only 3 students over the course of this learning program, we helped develop their knowledge of local ecology. 

There were many highlights to the program. One was a visit to the Pollinator Project office to chat with Valerie and Mélodie at the Phoenix Dripp and Oregon Cheese Cave, and share fun pollinator-themed snacks. We visited three different From Fire to Flowers gardens, and chatted with some of the gardeners about the environmental and emotional benefits of their pollinator-friendly space.

We brought in wonderful guest speakers like Sophie from SOFRC to do a live-fire demonstration, and Kristi Margenthaler from SOLC to share the intricacies of plant biology and identification. Each student picked out a different native plant to study and report on. Towards the end of the two weeks, we all  worked together to design, prepare, and construct a pollinator garden which includes those plants. All three of these students are going into their senior year, and I'm so happy that they got to leave their footprint at the school with a native plant pollinator garden.

The pollinator garden at ACCS!

I have one more project that I need to mention before we end. In the background of all of these classes and events, we have been planning, meeting, scheming, and applying for grants, all in service of a major project that we are very excited about. Thanks to Sandy Wine of the Blue Heron Park Community Garden in Phoenix, and thanks to community members, city officials, contractors, and schools, we are in the beginning stages of building an outdoor education space full of native plants!  The Children's Learning Garden will be located in the back, unused portion of the community garden. Our goal is to create an accessible educational space that PPRV and Pollinator Pals can use as an immersive teaching location. Who knows, maybe in a year or two we will be putting on summer camps there, with kids zipping around to collect seeds and observe the native pollinators we've attracted by planting their favorite plants and building their habitat! As you can imagine, we are very excited about the opportunities this project creates for us, and therefore for the community that we are so proud to be a part of. Keep an eye out for more news about the development and the education that is already happening with this project! (Ok -- just a peek ... I'll share more in my Fall Reflections!)

A new garden bed created by students from The Valley School in Medford

Well, it looks like we've reached the end of this jaunt through recent-memory lane. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about the work we've done over the 2025 summer. Who knew there would be so much to do!! The lessons we developed, the programs we learned from, the people, schools, and organizations, along with new resources, will undoubtedly allow us to reach more students and do more work in the community in 2026. We look forward to seeing you there! 

I'd like to close with a big shout-out of gratitude to the community members and foundations who support PPRV and our Pollinator Pals program - we really couldn't do what we do without this support! Learn more about Pollinator Pals on our website here, and consider making a contribution of any amount here.

Thank you! We are already looking forward to next summer!