Elora Kelsh Creative

As part of the Eugene + Springfield Chambers of Commerce Leadership Eugene-Springfield (LES) program, I was part of a group of seven team members from the 2021-2022 cohort that embarked on a local initiative to help Lane County’s local pollinators. Our group planted three new pollinator gardens in Eugene + Springfield with flowers, herbs, + other plants to help attract pollinators at the following sites: 1. Huerto de la Familia (Springfield), 2. Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce (Springfield), + 3. Thinking Tree Spirits Tasting Room (Eugene).

In addition to planting three gardens, our group created a digital resource guide in both English + Spanish to help community members learn about pollinators + how they can plant their own garden to make an impact on a local level. Each garden site had signage available with QR codes that linked to the digital resource guides.

To celebrate the three new gardens, our group held a planting event + table with educational resources available at Thinking Tree Spirits (88 Jackson St., Eugene) on April 23, 2022, near Earth Day. During the event, community members were invited to see the garden, learn more about pollinators, + sample Thinking Tree’s ready-to-drink bottled cocktail, The Bee’s Knees. The honey used in The Bee’s Knees was provided in partnership by Eugene-based organization GloryBee; a percentage of the sales of The Bee’s Knees goes towards supporting GloryBee’s SAVE the BEE initiative.

Our group goal was to create an educational campaign to spread awareness of the importance of our native pollinators, their recent population declines, + what community members (including individuals + businesses) can do to help increase + support their populations on a local level.

The digital resource guide was a major part of the project, as one of our main objectives was to create an engaging, readable, helpful, accurate, concise, + easy-to-understand resource that could be easily accessed + provide inspiration on how to approach creating a pollinator garden. I made sure the PDF guides were well-balanced with graphics vs. text, + linked out to other sources for those who want to dig in deeper + learn more. I created both English + Spanish versions to address our various populations, while making sure all of our media (including our presentation video) maintained consistent branding.

We worked on this group project over the course of six months alongside participation in the monthly, day-long sessions of the LES program, where we developed leadership skills + learned about topics relevant to our area’s current/future needs + opportunities. We delivered a final project presentation to our cohort of 26 industry professionals, in addition to Chamber representatives, coworkers, supervisors, + family members who were also invited.

While it was initially challenging to work on a group project with individuals who started off as strangers, our group was able to come to a consensus on a topic to tackle relatively quickly, + we worked together effectively + develivered what we all agreed felt like a successful + meaningful project. I’m proud to have been a part of this team, + cherish the connections I built with everyone.

Our video is additionally on display as a featured example on the Springfield Chamber’s LES informational webpage.