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Students engage community on importance of pollinators with festival, variety show

Those involved with the May 17 TheBuzz Pollinator Festival & Variety Show are, from left: Imagine Corps founder Joe Gammal, Aarav Nadkarni, Saisha Khanal, Abhi Pillai, Emily Shvechkov, Alara Hendekli, Selin Uras and show producer Dawn Anderson. PHOTO/ADITYA NADKARNI

A group of students participating in Imagine Corps recently held an event at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts promoting the benefits of pollinators on local ecosystems.

The event, which included a variety show and a festival of local environmental partners, is part of an initiative the students put together known as The Buzz Project. It is a community-centered program combining hands-on learning and theater with environmental action to educate people on the importance of pollinators. The students involved said the variety show and festival, which took place May 17, are just the beginning.

“I’m sure we’ll do more events in the future,” said Aarav Nadkarni. “For our first event, we had a good attendance.”

Nadkarni directed and help write the show portion of the event. It featured “a mix of solo acts and skits” intended to educate attendees on the myths and facts associated with pollinator gardens. Fellow project member Abhi Pillai managed the stage crew and acted in some of the skits. Alara Hendekli also served as an actor and musician, and helped with programming such as the sale of baked goods and designing the playbook.

The trio got community support from a number of organizations, some of whom participated in the event. The Hopkinton Center for the Arts allowed the group to use its performance space and amphitheater. It also had one of its adult artists paint large pots donated by Weston Nurseries that were auctioned off to raise money. The auction still is ongoing, as is the group’s GoFundMe. Both efforts are aimed at raising funds to reimburse the HCA for use of its space and pay for props and costumes.

The Hopkinton Public Library and Weston Nurseries additionally provided seeds and seedlings that attendees could pick up in order to start growing their own pollinator gardens.

Nadkarni, Pillai and Hendekli started on the road to their big event last year during a summer camp for the youth innovating learning and service program Imagine Corps. The three were issued a challenge by the Sustainable Green Committee encouraging them to figure out how to get the “why” of pollinators into the community, Imagine Corps founder Joe Gammal explained to the Independent in a previous interview.

Since then, their work has encompassed a website, an app for tracking and learning more about pollinator gardens, and the variety show and festival. The students’ work also was submitted to and won an innovator award from the youth innovation competition the Conrad Challenge.

With the success of their recent event under their belts, the three students now are thinking about next steps. Nadkharni said they are hoping to get more people using the app and plan to continue doing community events like another variety show or a field day to keep getting the word out.

— NICK SCHOFIELD

Latest News

After 93 years in operation, Carbone’s Restaurant officially will be closing its doors June 27.

The Department of Public Works informed residents that MassDOT will close the Fruit Street bridge June 6-7 for construction work.

Hopkinton High School’s boys and girls tennis teams, along with the girls lacrosse team, will enter the first round of postseason play this week.

Ruth Dusseault, 90, formerly of Hopkinton, passed away May 12.

Brian Bidlingmeyer, 81, a former resident of Hopkinton, died April 1.

The latest Real Estate Transactions list shows just one home sold in the past week.

Town meetings tonight include the Select Board (6), Economic Development Advisory Board (7), Marathon Fund Committee (7) and Cultural Council (7).

Photo of the Day

Hopkinton High School band director Craig Hay leads students in a performance during the town’s Memorial Day ceremonies on Monday. Click here for more photos.

PHOTO/JOHN CARDILLO