An Extension of the Zoo’s Cool Blue Bridgeport Climate Change Education Program Is Assisted by a $50,000 Grant from M&T Bank
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – June 21, 2023 – In addition to the more than a dozen gardens providing critical habitat for native insects and pollinators on Zoo grounds, the Zoo’s Education Department has laid the framework for additional pollinator gardens off Zoo grounds as well. With the assistance of a $50,000, two-year Amplify grant from M&T Bank, members of the Education Department are engaging the community in hands-on work to help native insects, including the more than 300 species of bees found in Connecticut, as well as butterflies, moths, flies, and beetles. Developed as a way to extend the Zoo’s Cool Blue Bridgeport program, a climate change educational series that offers free Saturday admission to Bridgeport residents throughout the school year, the goal is to engage Bridgeport residents in active conservation work. After pitching the program to the City of Bridgeport’s Sustainability Manager Chadwick Schroeder, they were given the go ahead.
Educators Deszani Flemmings and Zoe Glover selected three locations: a 1,000 square foot space at the Fairchild Wheeler Inter-district Magnet High School; a 3,500 square foot space in Beardsley Park across from the Zoo’s entrance; and a 200 square foot space at The Discovery Museum. Flemmings and Glover began by teaching students and volunteers to prep the sites, with lessons on climate change, soil composition, and pollination. The goal is to plant three to five gardens within two years. “By engaging members of the community, we have the intention to create supportive ecosystems for pollinators,” said Flemmings. “This is just the start. We want those three communities to take ownership of these projects.”