Spring has sprung and with it so many opportunities and possibilities to continue growing connected habitat pollinator islands are also sprouting. Our community volunteer group, Pollinate / Polliniser Aylmer, held its first meeting of the season last night, to talk about many of these possibilities, but also to reflect a little on our history, our mission, and what we accomplished together last season.
Growing the Butterflyway Aylmer
We started the meeting by welcoming our expanded new cohort of officially minted, trained and T-shirted David Suzuki Butterflyway Rangers, though I would argue they have all been doing this work since our pollinator group first formed in Aylmer almost exactly one year ago. I wish one of us had thought to take a photo of us all together, but we were missing two of them (Sarah, Dominique, we cheered you anyway 😊), and we will have plenty of opportunities to take one with our hands in dirt, I’m sure, which is how we all prefer being photographed anyway.
We also had several people join us for the first time. Some who have been part of our Facebook group for a long time but were never able to make it to an event. Some who came to one of the free winter workshops we offered in partnership with Partenaires Du Secteur Aylmer, learned about our hyper-local little group of Aylmerites, and the hyper-local work we do, and decided to join us, and continue learning by doing, helping and improving our community here in Aylmer. Others, still, were there, who spent this past winter sorting and packing seeds with us inside warmth and community vibe of the Aylmer Maison Communitaire, and some whom we met at our first Aylmer Seed Project event, Seedy Saturday. We were so excited to have Createrre Gatineau’s Nicole join our group, after her exciting announcement that one of our group’s new Butterflyway Rangers, Sarah, will also be working with Createrre in support of their mission to reduce and produce zero waste. These connections, person to person, are how we build community.
Crayons, Post-its, and Creative Energy
All of these individuals came together with so much energy, and so many fun ideas, and we got to know each other a bit, found some much needed skills among the group (wood working, heavy lifting, video editing, translation, different knowledge domains), and brainstormed while getting to know each other. We used post -t notes and wrote down in crayons to help channel our creativity, while we moved around the room, speed-dating style, getting to know each other, and coming across new topics with new members.
Seedling Sunday Aylmer: Save the Date
Ideas flowed for our upcoming Seedling Sunday (May 31st, save the date, or check out our new Event calendar – more details coming soon), new workshop topics to explore, Butteflyway Aylmer stops, community events, and hidden talents that could help us in our work. We all had a chuckle at the end reading them out-loud together, especially as we subscribe to the rule that in a brainstorm no idea is shot down, and some of us got silly as we got comfortable with the exercise.
It really was a lovely way to kick off our 2026 planting season and see the sparkle of possibility in the eyes of everyone who joined us. For those who missed it, spring is just starting, and we will have more community meetups through Pollinate / Polliniser Aylmer, and we hope to see you at the next one (which I also hope is outside 😊)
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