A HUGE Pollinator Palooza Thank-you

Video produced by David Washburn and Kelsey Trudell

A HUGE Thank you to all who helped make the third annual

Pollinator Palooza native plant sale a success!

Sustainable Saratoga is delighted that so many people turned out for the Third Annual Pollinator Palooza at Oligny’s Country Gardens on June 1, 2024. We are proud to announce that over 2,000 native pollinator plants were purchased and found their way into the hands and gardens of Capital District and North Country residents. This is terrific support for pollinators and Sustainable Saratoga! Thank you!

The Palooza’s success was owed to the volunteerism and generosity of many individuals including the Oligny family and Sustainable Saratoga’s Pollinator and Native Plant Committee. Here is our recognition of the people who made it happen…we apologize if we missed anyone…please let us know if we did!

Our Hosts

Thank you first and foremost to Brian and Debbie Oligny of Oligny’s Country Gardens for letting us use their greenhouse to grow our plants and then letting us host the Palooza on their beautiful property in Gansevoort. They have been steadfast supporters of this event from the moment we suggested it more than three years ago. We could not hold the Palooza without them and thank them for their warmth, advice, and good-natured tolerance of people trooping in and out of their greenhouse for months.

Thank you to the Olignys’ neighbor, Jeff Mancini, for letting us use his property as a parking lot for the second year in a row. We really appreciate the ability to handle crowds safely because of his generosity. If you came to the first Palooza, you know how important the parking lot is to the event.

The Palooza Planning Team

A huge thank you to Christine Burghart, who is the founder of Palooza and its chief cook and bottlewasher. She conceived of the event, named it and made it happen. Without her, we would just be handing out seed packets at the farmer’s market instead of supplying the region with thousands of native perennial flowers.

The Team: Christine Burghart, Johanna Garrison, Dianna Goodwin, Jennifer Michelle, Tina O’Hanlon, Wendy Mahaney, Paul Murphy, Caroline Rothaug and Kelsey Trudell. It took a lot of time and effort to pull it off again, and we did it!

Pollinator Palooza team Johanna Garrison and Wendy Mahaney. Along with Chris, they are the brains behind the event. The three of them work hard to choose the plants, provide information on them, pot them up and staff the greenhouse.

The potting crew who carefully potted up all our seedlings: Lori Bishop, Christine Burghart, Nora Cheek, Kathryn Edwards, Johanna Garrison, Dianna Goodwin, Shelley Hachenski, Julie Holmberg, Bethany Khan and Natalie, Wendy Mahaney, Jennifer Michelle, Alexandra Morgan, Tina O’hanlon, Caroline Rothaug, Mary Jo Salomon, Susan Taylor, Karen Totino, Maria Trabka, and Kelsey Trudell.

The greenhouse volunteers who watered and cared for our plants daily for nearly two months: Chris Burghart, Dianna Goodwin, Caroline Rothaug and Kelsey Trudell.

Thank you to Candice Bergmann for making our social media look so good. And to Beth Plummer, Sustainable Saratoga’s Media Coordinator, for help with getting the word out. And to Jodi Visconti and the Saratoga Springs High School Graphic Design and Printing Club for our beautiful new banners.

Our generous donors

Kudos to Jennifer Michelle for soliciting an amazing array of donations for the raffle for the third year in a row, and to Jennifer, Kate Edwards, and Maja Mahaney for selling the raffle tickets and minding the table. Congratulations to all the winners!

Thank you to the businesses and individuals who donated items for our raffle: 9 Miles East Farm, American Beauties Native Plants, Balet Flowers and Design, Booth’s Blend Compost, Chris’ Garden Glass, Dawn’s Wild Things Rescue Nursery, Eastern Mountain Sports, Kayak Shak,Roosevelt Baths and Spa, Saratoga Olive Oil Company, and Saratoga Quality Hardware.

A special thanks to Martha Johnson at Slack Hollow Farm for planting and growing out the milkweed seedlings we gave away at the Sustainable Saratoga table. Thank you to Janet Britt for helping plant the fly-away milkweed seeds.

Food for mind and body

Click the arrows to scroll through the photos

We truly appreciate the participating organizations and their tables filled with information and demonstrations to educate us on land preservation and the importance of native plants to our birds and pollinators: Capital Region PRISM, City of Saratoga Springs Participatory Budgeting, Cornell Cooperative Extension Saratoga County Master Gardeners, Grassland Bird Trust,Merck Forest and Farmland Center, North Shore Animal League, Saratoga PLAN, SoBro conservancy of Saratoga, Southern ADK Audubon Society, Wild Ones Capital Region, and Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park.

Thank you again to the food and beverage truck vendors who provided sustenance to the hungry crowds: Coach’s Corner and Sustainable Eats.

An enthusiastic round of applause to the Saratoga Springs High School Fiddle Club who entertained us all. Come back again next year!

Our incredible volunteers

Thank you to our Palooza volunteers who prepared for the day, set up the event, directed traffic, staffed the tables, answered questions in the greenhouse, cashiered, kept things flowing, and cleaned up at the end. In alphabetical order they are: Braelyn Bourgeois, Michael Cohen, Alex Couture, Serene Couture, Leanne Donelan, Amy Durland, Kate Edwards, Anne Ernst, Susan Fairchild, Laura Faulk, Dianna Goodwin, Barbara Lasher, Elaine McArdle, Tom McNamara, Dave McKeighan, Shannon McKeighan, Jennifer Michelle, Alexandra Morgan, Paul Murphy, Tina O’Hanlon, Maja Smemo, Mathew Smith, Judy Staubo, Chuck Tirone, Maria Trabka, Ben Trudell, and Jody Visconti.