Jerry Garcia passed away 22 years ago, but the legacy of the lead singer of the Grateful Dead lives on in a new effort to boost wild honeybee and monarch butterfly populations.
Embarking on a summer tour across America, Dead & Company, the group headed by former Garcia bandmates Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann (with special guest John Mayer), will give fans at each venue a way in which they can help repopulate the winged creatures.
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To encourage butterfly and bee conservation among Deadheads, the Foundation will be passing out free milkweed seeds and garden pollinator packs to the first 300 concert-goers to visit their tent at the venues, courtesy of the Save Our Monarchs Foundation.
Anyone who actually ends up planting the seeds can participate in an interactive art project by submitting photos of the blossoming garden to the foundation’s Facebook page with the tags #SaveTheMonarchs, #SaveTheBees, or #RippleEffect.
“Save Our Monarchs has generously donated thousands of Non-GMO milkweed seed packets and pollinator garden seeds,” said Keelin Garcia, Jerry’s youngest daughter and co-founder of the Jerry Garcia Foundation. “We are sharing these seeds in hopes that gardens will be planted to nourish butterfly and bee populations across the US.”
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The initiative comes at an appropriate time, too. Garcia’s birthday is coming up on August 9th, and the program supports a cause that would have been very dear to him. Additionally, National Pollinator Week is running from June 19th-25th.
The Garcia foundation has already donated several of the singer’s colorful art pieces to benefit Save Our Monarchs and the urban beekeeping organization Honey Love.
“Jerry was an environmentalist who advocated for the preservation of the rainforests and the coral reefs,” said Manasha Garcia, Jerry’s wife and co-founder of the foundation. “It is a blessing to continue this work in his honor.”
Encourage The #RippleEffect: Click To Keep This Story Truckin’ – OR, (Photos by the Jerry Garcia Foundation)