WOODBURY - An entertaining evening of music to benefit pollinators will be held Saturday, May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), at New Morning Market, 129 Main Street North.

All proceeds will go to Protect Our Pollinators (propollinators.org), a Newtown-based advocacy group.

An eclectic evening of music related to pollinators, advocacy, and the environment has been selected to entertain, inspire, and amuse. The event will run from 7 to 10 pm, with music starting at 7:30.

Newtown-based voice teacher Jackie Gaudet will be joined by Joe Jacovino, Kristin Ryan, Sadie Baimel, and Brian Donofree.

A silent auction, light refreshments, and desserts will round out the fun, family-friendly evening.

Protect Our Pollinators (POP) is a small group of dedicated individuals based in Newtown who advocate for pollinators and their habitats. Its co-founders are Holly Kocet and Mary Gaudet Wilson.

Ms Kocet currently serves on Newtown Conservation Commission. She is also a certified advanced master gardener with the University of Connecticut (2011), and a past president of The Garden Club of Newtown.

She is employed by Earth Tones Native Plant Nursery in Woodbury, where her love of native plants was nurtured, and where she has learned a great deal about native plant species that support bees, butterflies, and other wildlife.

Ms Gaudet-Wilson is also an educator and former Newtown Conservation Commission chairman.

POP was formed in the summer of 2015 after its founders reportedly learned about a young girl who wanted to plant a garden for bees and butterflies. She spent her own money to purchase plants at a local nursery and soon planted a garden she was very proud of.

When it was discovered that bees in her garden were dying, her mom sought help to find the cause . Soil testing determined that the plants she purchased at a local garden center had been treated with a Neonicotinoid (Neo-nic) systemic insecticide. The insecticide was poisoning bees that visited the flowers in her garden.

POP's founders realized rather quickly that something needed to be done to make the public aware of overuse and misuse of pesticides, and the plight of pollinators including bees, butterflies, birds, and others. Through education, the POP Initiative seeks to increase awareness of threatened pollinator species including native bees, honeybees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects, as well as birds and bats; encourage planting of native species for pollinators and other wildlife; increase awareness of harmful pesticides and their effects on bees and other pollinators; provide safe alternatives to harmful pesticides (insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides); and seek local government and state support for protection of pollinators.

Members have set up a website, written many articles, created brochures on "Alternatives to Pesticides and Planting a Pollinator Garden," and published a newsletter called Buzz Words.

POP offers presentations for garden clubs and other organizations, including UConn Master Gardeners and NOFA, and members attend many events where they set up displays and provide materials and informational fact sheets.

In recent years members have also championed for local causes including preserving at least part of Cherry Grove Farm as open space ("The native plants and trees found there provide food, shelter, and breeding areas for birds, bees, and many wildlife species," Ms Kocet wrote in part in a January 2018 letter to The Newtown Bee) and working with Newtown Forest Association to establish a meadow at Blackman Preserve.

Since 2016 POP has cosponsored, with The Newtown Bee, a poster contest for students through eighth grade, who are invited to submit art celebrating pollinators.

Suggested donation for the May 5 fundraiser is $15 for adults, $10 for students. Reservations are recommended and can be done by contacting Mary Gaudet-Wilson, 203-417-1109.

[naviga:img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-316485" src="https://newtownbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/POP-planning-benefit-concert-group.jpg" alt="POP planning benefit concert -- group" width="500" height="403" /]

Jackie Gaudet, right, will be joined by musicians including, clockwise, Sadie Baimel, Kristin Ryan, and Joe Jacovino for a May 5 benefit event in Woodbury that will raise funds for Newtown-based Protect Our Pollinators.

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