Age
11
Country of Residence
United States
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
My mom loves gardening and has included me in many of our gardening projects at home. Through these experiences, I started noticing how plants, flowers, and trees attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. I also did a presentation at school about native plants, which helped me understand why they are important for our local environment. My interest grew when I learned how rapidly trees and natural habitats are being lost as Cumming and other cities expand with new housing and development. I began wondering where the bees, butterflies, and other pollinators would go as their natural habitats disappeared. That was my aha moment. Instead of just talking about the problem, I wanted to do something about it. I started creating a pollinator-friendly garden in my own backyard using plants that attract local pollinators. Seeing bees and butterflies visit the garden showed me that even a small space can make a difference. Now I want to take this idea further by helping provide free native plants to as many families and community spaces as possible, encouraging others to create pollinator gardens and observe the biodiversity returning to their neighborhoods. I want to show that children can take small actions that create meaningful change for nature.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
We believe people become changemakers when they are given the opportunity to participate, contribute ideas, and see the results of their actions. Pollinator Power will use the garden as a community gathering and engagement space. Through youth-led planting days, school outreach, garden parties, nature activities, and community events, we will invite students, families, and residents to take part in creating and nurturing pollinator habitats. We plan to build a neighborhood volunteer network bringing together schools, parents, city representatives, community organizations, local businesses, and private-sector partners who share an interest in biodiversity. We will also reach out to residents through local farmers markets, where we can introduce the initiative, distribute information, and invite people to sign up as volunteers or receive free native plants. We want participation to be accessible and enjoyable. People do not need to be experienced gardeners or environmental scientists to contribute. They can help plant, observe pollinators, share knowledge, document discoveries, host garden gatherings, or support ongoing maintenance. We will use social media and digital storytelling to share our progress, celebrate volunteers, showcase pollinator sightings, and inspire other neighborhoods and schools to participate.
How many people are on your team?
4
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Pollinator Power has begun with my own backyard pollinator garden, where I have seen bees and butterflies visiting the native plants. This experience showed me that even a small space can make a difference. I am also inspired by my friend Sid, who has worked on a school kitchen gardening project where he grew vegetables and incorporated pollinator-friendly plants. Seeing other children take an interest in growing food and supporting pollinators makes me believe that more young people can become environmental changemakers. Georgia already has school pollinator gardens and youth initiatives such as UGA's pollinator education programs and Georgia 4-H Pollinator Ambassadors. I want to build on this momentum by making the approach more accessible and youth-driven. My vision is to provide free native plants to families and schools, transform unused portions of school lawns into Pollinator STEM Learning Labs, and encourage children to grow food while supporting pollinators. We will measure our impact through the number of children and schools engaged, native plants distributed, gardens established, and pollinator visits observed and recorded. My goal is to start locally in Cumming and inspire other children and communities to bring biodiversity back into their everyday spaces.
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Pilot-Stage (We’ve tried an activity or two)
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
A youth-led initiative empowering school kids to restore local biodiversity through community pollinator gardens. By combining native habitat creation, hands-on ecological learning, and civic engagement, Pollinator Power enables young people to become environmental leaders while inspiring communities to protect pollinators and build climate-resilient ecosystems.
Project title
Pollinator Power: Kids Growing Biodiversity
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Pollinators are essential to biodiversity, food production, and healthy ecosystems. Yet their habitats are disappearing due to urban development, tree loss, pesticide use, and climate change. In the city of Cumming and surrounding communities, rapid housing and infrastructure expansion is replacing natural landscapes with buildings, roads, and manicured lawns. Even schools, which could become important spaces for biodiversity, often rely on conventional lawn maintenance systems that involve frequent mowing, chemical spraying, and outsourced landscaping, leaving little room for native plants and pollinator habitats. This is a problem I want to address, starting with my own school and my friends' schools. School grounds have enormous potential to become living spaces for environmental learning, but that potential is often overlooked. I want to change how we think about these spaces. Instead of seeing lawns as areas that only need to be maintained, I see an opportunity to transform parts of them into pollinator-friendly habitats. I believe children should have the opportunity to learn about biodiversity by experiencing it firsthand. By creating native plant gardens and pollinator STEM learning labs, we can help schools become places where students observe nature, understand ecological relationships, and take responsibility for protecting the environment.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://www.instagram.com/mr.neo_and_ms.maanya/
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
My first step will be to present the idea to my school and the City Garden Committee, identify suitable spaces, and bring together friends, the founding youth team, The Circular Farm, and local community supporters. Since winter is not the main planting season, I want to use these months to build our network, connect with other students, create a social media presence, organize garden parties, and raise awareness about native plants and pollinators. I will also explore partnerships with local nurseries, including the Wildflower Center, which offers discounts for community projects. As spring approaches, we hope to organize our first community planting activities and establish a demonstration pollinator garden. With sufficient funding and community support, we would like to expand the initiative to other schools in Cumming. By the end of the first year, I envision a thriving pollinator garden filled with native plants, attracting bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. More importantly, I see it becoming a welcoming gathering space where children, families, and volunteers come together for garden parties, nature activities, and shared learning. I want this first garden to become a living example that we can document, celebrate, and use to inspire and replicate similar youth-led gardens in other schools and neighborhoods.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Pollinator gardens and environmental education programs already exist, but Pollinator Power takes a different approach. We believe children should not simply learn about nature through a curriculum or participate in activities designed by adults. They should have the freedom to lead, create, experiment, and develop their own relationship with nature. The heart of Pollinator Power is youth ownership. It is a space where children can come together, express their love for nature, share ideas, and turn their interests into meaningful action. We want environmental stewardship to be enjoyable, creative, and part of everyday life rather than another school assignment or structured program. Through garden parties, planting days, nature walks, storytelling, and digital creativity, children will connect with one another and with the environment. They can document their discoveries, share their experiences online, and inspire other young people to take action. We also want to create a welcoming and inclusive space where children from different backgrounds feel safe, valued, and heard. Nature can bring children together beyond social differences, giving everyone an opportunity to contribute, develop friendships, and build confidence. Our approach brings together families, schools, local government, environmental organizations, and community changemakers as partners who support rather than control youth leadership. Like Robotics club, I want to create an innovative maker space that can equip youth to address climate challenges by creating more green space where they can explore, cultivate and transform.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
Pollinator Power will grow from my backyard pollinator garden into a youth-led initiative in Cumming, Georgia. The project will focus on five activities. First, I will work with other young changemakers to identify suitable spaces in our community and local schools where we can create pollinator habitats. Second, we will research and select native plants that provide food and shelter for local bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. I also want to make free native plants available to families and schools so that more people can participate. Third, we will lead the design, planting, and maintenance of pollinator gardens, using practices that protect soil, conserve water, and avoid harmful chemical spraying. Fourth, we will observe and document pollinator visits, plant growth, and seasonal changes. I also hope to develop Pollinator STEM Learning Labs at schools, where students can learn about biodiversity through hands-on observation and simple experiments. Finally, we will engage schools, families, residents, and community organizations through planting days, educational activities, and outreach events. I will work alongside local environmental changemakers and community partners who can guide and support the initiative. My goal is to create a model that other children and schools can replicate, showing that even small actions can help bring nature back into our neighborhoods.
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
I will lead Pollinator Power, joined by my friend Sid, who will share his experience with backyard vegetable gardening and pollinator-friendly spaces to create awareness and help bring schools together. My mom will mentor us, while The Circular Farm will provide expertise and guidance, drawing on its previous community gardening initiatives with Global Growers Network in Decatur and Woodward North School. We will also engage women volunteering group and community partners.
