Happy New Year! We are glad for the breath of fresh air (inhaled cautiously through our masks) that 2021 brings! The first board meeting of the year has already happened and we're so excited for the fun things coming up in the next 11 months! But first, a quick recap of the last year: Our biggest announcement for the end of 2020 is that thanks to the incredible kindness and generosity of Joey Lenderman of Enchanted Gardens, we have received a donation of $10,150 from the #MilkweedMovement. Each year they donate the proceeds from their milkweed sales to local nonprofit organizations and we are beyond grateful to be one of the recipients. (Photos coming soon in the next email as soon as we can contain our tears of joy...) Though most of our summer seminars had to be postponed, we had a great Salsa night last June with a wonderful turnout and some expert tomato growers attending. We also still have all of the supplies for our other 3 seminars and plan to resume hosting them this summer in a safe, socially distanced format! (Stay tuned to future emails with more details!) Caterpillar protection and butterfly releasing was a hobby adopted by many more people in 2020 as they worked from home and had the opportunity to check out the critters in their yards. Derick had many MANY 4am mornings in his work shop hand-building butterfly enclosures before going to work, and at times a waiting list several pages long. Unbelievably, he built almost 60 enclosures this past year. A portion of the proceeds from each enclosure he builds is donated to our 'Help Us Grow' fund. We also had a great year selling 100% organic produce from our trial garden and hand printed T-shirts via online orders and appreciate all of the support you have given to keep us going through the pandemic. We are looking forward, as I'm sure you are too, to getting back out into the world and gathering with friends, neighbors, and volunteers to plant some butterfly gardens, host some fundraisers, and most of all, get our program officially up and running!
