Date: March 18th, 2024
Time: 7 p.m.
Where: Cyrville Community Centre, 4355 Halmont Dr, Gloucester
Gloucester Hortcultural Society presents
Joan Harvey and Mary Ash, members of the Monarch Teacher Network who have created many, many butterfly gardens at schools all over Ottawa, will talk about the many facets of Monarch butterflies: life cycle, migration, number trends and reasons, and how to construct a welcoming garden.
The Monarch Teacher Network was created in the United States in 2001, and was first introduced to Canada in Kingston during the summer of 2003. The following year, 2004, Joan and Mary attended their workshop on Teaching and Learning with Monarch Butterflies and they were hooked. The following year, 2005, Johanna took the workshop and joined the team. Until they retired, they spent considerable time in their classrooms teaching the curriculum using the subject of the Monarch.
Initially they presented workshops to train other teachers on how to use the butterflies to present the curriculum for grades JK-12; but with the decline of Monarch numbers, they shifted their focus to creating habitat, that is, butterfly gardens, to support them. To date they have formally been instrumental in the creation of 18+ school gardens and 10+ community gardens in the area, as well as having trained hundreds of teachers. They now present to Horticultural groups, Retirement Homes, and other Community Interest Groups.”