It is Labor Day Weekend, which, for many marks the end of the summer. For those of us in Atlanta, summer has been waning for over a month. My younger son has been back in school since late July; most area schools are now in session, including area colleges. It seems time to relinquish our period of summer vacation and get back to our academic-year pursuits, a transition that continues to direct the annual cycles in my own life.
I received an email yesterday from Homegrown National Park, which seemed to close down their first (hopefully annual) Mosquito Bucket Challenge. They thanked the participants, reporting that 130,000 visited their site, and that community members’ feedback encouraged some of their actions, including stickers and handouts (I may be wrong, but I think I had something to do with the former, as they reached out to me and initiated an exchange about the stickers we were designing, still being launched at that point; theirs are great — and combine a couple of the elements of ours, as I shared). And they mentioned that buckets can still make a difference in many areas. In Georgia, we likely have at least 2 more months of mosquito activity.
On this weekend of transitions, I want to add my gratitude to theirs. Thank you, Doug Tallamy and Homegrown National Park, for spreading the information about the “mosquito buckets of doom,” as they have come to be called and for generating so much buzz in the social media campaign. Thank you, Principal Jennifer Triplett, at Oakhurst Elementary in the City Schools of Decatur, who welcomed goats and buckets a few years ago and made me think this initiative might go somewhere. Thank you, Allison Erickson, Urban Naturalist, City of Decatur, for encouraging buckets in our local neighborhoods and sharing experience with neighbors who had installed buckets and covered several contiguous yards, reminding each other to replenish dunks had made a difference; our idea for regular emails came from that conversation. Thank you, Peter Helfrich, who has advised me on choices and decisions related to pollinators and pesticides for years and who designed the logo for B Buckets in record time; and who makes sure that we are included in the relevant festivals and events. Thank you, Nell Ruby, who has helped with the design of all other aspects of the buckets and the website (and to Anastasia Owen who continues to help me maintain it) and signs/stickers, and has added her generous spirit, ambitious brainstorming, and unbridled enthusiasm for more co-conspired creative projects than I can count, for over two decades. Thank you, Leslie Inman and Laura Markson and Claire McDavid/Atlanta Botanical Garden and Annie O’Neill/Woodlands Garden, who elevated our presence in the Atlanta area by sharing our buckets in workshops and on social media and invited us for strategic demonstrations/presentations. Thank you, Andy Jones and Tony Powers, at Intown Ace Hardware who sourced black buckets and even hydroponic lids and bought out warehouses at least twice to keep both in stock for local purchases; their collaboration helped spread hundreds more buckets in Decatur than I would have alone. Thank you, Jarvis Adams and Derrick Thomas at the City Schools of Decatur, who supported the pilot project and welcomed buckets to playgrounds. And thank you, all of the B Buckets clients, who have tried buckets this seasons, through our delivery or instruction; there are, we estimate, about 1000 more buckets in the Atlanta area now from our collective efforts. It has indeed been a community effort, for which I am so grateful.
And while we are not done yet for this year–still building buckets, sending reminders, serving schools–we are already making plans for next spring to continue to spread our educational efforts and safer alternatives to sprays & fogging to our local community – and beyond.
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