SPRING 2025: The Chapter was busy doing outreach and community engagement this spring, participating in as many as 3 events on a single day during Earth Week! We thank all those members who gave of their time and enthusiasm as ambassadors for Wild Ones to advocate for less lawn and more native plants during this busy gardening season.
Susan Kinsman staffed a combined Master Gardener/Wild Ones table at the Friends of Machimoodus-Sunrise Spring Fling (3/23. East Haddam) and assisted with our table for Arbor Day at the Arboretum (4/25, New London).
Sue Augustyniak hosted a Wild Ones table at the Old Saybrook Enviromental Fair for Earth Day (4/26). She was also part of the Arbor Day crew.
Tom Wing represented Wild Ones with literature and free seeds at Old Lyme’s Earth Day Fair (4/26).
Groton’s Earth Day Expo (4/26) was a bustling event that kept table staffers busy answering questions and engaging visitors of all ages around the ways that pollinators and native plants depend on one another. Meredith Jarvis, Chris Richards, Noreen Kepple, Claire Calabretta and Lydia Pan took turns staffing our table. Local artist Lisa Hill created an eye-catching “Native Plants and Pollinators Need Each Other” table sign.
Lydia Pan, Mark Kronenberg and Sue Stark showcased Wild Ones’ information resources at the spring All Things Pollinator event at UrbanScapes Native Plant Nursery (6/14, New Haven).
SUMMER 2025:
Robin Parsons, Nancy Brault, Susan Kinsman, Gail Reynolds, Jim Sirch and Lydia Pan took turns staffing the Wild Ones information table at the 115th Plant Science Day, a full-day public event at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s Lockwood Farm in Hamden on August 6, 2025. This year’s attendance was 1066, including 119 children. Many of the people whom we engaged in conversation about the importance of planting native plants were not familiar with Wild Ones. By the end of the day, 30 individuals had signed up to receive our email news and program announcements.