Big meeting Wednesday at Wick Park Pavilion! Prepare by following this checklist:

1. Vocational Service Month continues with the Givers’ Exchange. Bring a bag of swag from your business or organization to share with Rotarians. This is another fun way to learn about each others’ occupations. 

2. Make a donation of cash or nonperishable food items to boost the Ursuline High School Interact Club’s breakfast food collection for the Saint Angela Merici Parish food pantry. Cereal, pancake/waffle mixes, breakfast bars and toaster pastries are among suggested items.

3. Bring recyclable plastic film for a special second collection this month. RCY needs 42 more pounds to meet its 6-month goal and earn a third bench from the Trex plastic recycling company. Push us over the finish line!

Gerri Jenkins led an information-filled Club Assembly during lunch at the Wick Park Pavilion.

President-Elect George Nelson announced that all five Rotary International District Governors have agreed to partner with and fundraise for On Our Sleeves, a nonprofit organization that supports children’s mental health by breaking stigmas and helping families to talk about mental health. Children don’t wear their thoughts on their sleeves, and so it is difficult to know what they may be enduring. On Our Sleeves provides mental health resources for parents, teachers and caregivers. Free Kindness Kits will be available to teachers and include a curriculum, poster, and Kindness Cards to encourage children to exchange notes of gratitude with one another. More information will be forthcoming.

George also confirmed that RCY will host a solar eclipse event on April 7, on the eve of the actual eclipse. It will be a fundraiser for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education. 

In his Trex film plastic recycling program update, Mike Latessa noted that Trex has changed the term of participant commitments from 6 months to 1 year. RCY’s most recent recycling campaign will end on Jan. 31. If the club wants to continue, then a new coordinator must be identified, as Mike cannot continue since being promoted to interim executive director at The Rich Center for Autism. 

Samantha Turner provided a Beerfest update and asked all Rotarians to work a few hours on event day, which will be Saturday, Feb. 3. Contact her or Kevin Chiu to sign up.

John Fahnert is looking for volunteers to assist with the annual Youth Exchange Sleepover in downtown Youngstown. Our club will be chaperoning and entertaining 12 inbound students and one outbound student.

The sixth annual Groundhog Craft Beerfest will be on Saturday, Feb. 3, at Stambaugh Auditorium. Fundraising is fun at Beerfest! Here is how to get involved:

1. Sponsors are still being sought, whether they come from within the club or outside. Click here for the sponsor packet. Josh Prest and Shannon Tirone can guide you or answer questions.

2. Contact Kevin Chiu (kytc@zoominternet.net) to sign up for a Beerfest shift.

3. Each member is asked to sell four tickets. See Dominick Brown if you need additional tickets.

4. Keep reposting Beerfest social media messages on your pages and walls.

How to Reverse the Biodiversity Crisis of Pollinator Decline

Ashby Lavelle Sachs, PhD

An extraordinary trait of life on Earth is its biodiversity – the living, breathing network of organisms on our planet (plants, animals, protists, and fungi), along with people. Biodiversity supports the natural ecosystems that we depend on to maintain our own health and wellbeing. Healthy ecosystems clean our water and air, maintain the soil, regulate the climate, recycle nutrients, and provide us with food and medicine.

But the world is facing a startling rate of biodiversity loss from human causes, which may have severe consequences for human health. One trend that has particularly flown under the radar is the pattern of widespread decline in wild pollinators — bees, moths, and butterflies. Reports that mention sweeping declines of formerly abundant insects are raising alarms about increasingly unhealthy ecosystems. Larger animals like birds, fish and frogs rely on insects for food. Wildflowers and crops rely on insects for pollination. Or, as E.O. Wilson once said, without insects “the environment would collapse into chaos” and billions would starve.

In addition, research is showing in greater detail how pollinator-friendly spaces, rich in plants and birds, improve human wellbeing. One study, in which participants reported psychological wellbeing in riparian (relating to riverbanks) greenspaces, found that their sense of wellbeing correlated with their perceptions of the area’s richness of birds, butterflies and plants. The degree of restorativeness that they felt after walks was positively related to the perceived intensity of bird, butterfly, plant, and tree species. These studies highlight how human health is intricately connected to ecosystem health.

Yet massive pollinator decline is not part of the broader public discourse. A recent study found strikingly low levels of media attention to pollinator population topics relative to coverage of climate change. Of 10 million stories published from 2007 to 2019, just 1.39% referred to climate change/global warming while only 0.02% referred to pollinator populations in all contexts, and just 0.007% referred to pollinator declines.

The main causes of collapse in insect populations are habitat loss and pesticide use. An important step to avoid the “insect apocalypse” is to cut the use of pesticides ASAP. The European Union is aiming to reduce pesticide use by half by 2030, which would regulate plants found in big box stores and supermarkets that are full of insecticides. This move would have a real impact. Alsom, evidence suggests that setting aside between 3% and 8% of farmland to foster biodiversity would let pollinators keep farm pests under control, increase farming yields and reduce pesticide costs.

What can we do today as individuals, at home?

• Jump on the “No Mow May” bandwagon, a movement to reduce lawn-mowing in a crucial month for pollinators. Leave flowering weeds such as dandelions.

• Invest in native perennials or wildflower seed mixes to add color, insects, and vibrancy to your home or community garden.

• Grow your own wildflowers from seeds. It’s a fun and engaging way to support insect life at home and to inspire your neighbors to do the same.

• Leave a bowl of water with rocks outside for passing bees to rest and have a drink. 

• Make seed bombs with wildflower seeds to toss around the neighborhood or your garden .

• Build a bee hotel and welcome the buzzing guests with gusto.

Taking these small steps to support pollinators serve as creative tactics to connect with nature, support pollinators, and reduce eco-anxiety.