STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Make a stand for the planet on Saturday.

Wood River Valley residents are encouraged to come together on Saturday, June 9, to plant a pollinator pasture as part of its BIG IDEA project, “Bees.”

The community planting party will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 9, in The Center lot at Second Avenue and Fourth Street across from the Ketchum Post Office.

All ages are welcome.

Volunteers will plant a quilt of pollinator-friendly plants and wildflowers designed by Border Free Bees to raise awareness of the plight of wild pollinators.

There’ll be honey-inspired treats provided by Toni’s Sun Valley Ice Cream and a variety of kid-friendly activities.

And there will be sunflowers grown by students at Alturas and Bellevue Elementary Schools, Carey School, Community School, Hemingway STEAM School, Sage School and Syringa Mountain School.

Volunteers are asked to bring their own gardening gloves, trowels and shovels. Extra shovels and trowels will be available for those who don’t have them.

Three apiary sculptures will be installed at the center of the pollinator pasture to provide shelter to different types of native pollinators.

Those attending the planting party are invited to bring materials, such as sticks, pieces of firewood and aspen logs, pinecones, bamboo, paper straws and bricks, to fill the shelves of the apiaries.

Courtney Gilbert, curator of Visual Arts at The Center, said she hopes the project will beautify the empty lot.

“The entire ‘Bees’ project has been exciting for all of us at The Center because of the huge amount of community participation from volunteers who helped make seed paper and pin 10,001 paper bees to the museum walls to…Steve and Caroline Hobbs, who have donated an observation hive that is part of the museum exhibition and overseen much of the planning for the pasture and the apiaries,” she said.

Sawtooth Botanical Garden will provide information about how to create a pollinator-friendly garden at the event. Sage School students will provide seed bombs for planting participants to take home.

The “Bees” BIG IDEA project will run through June 22 at The Center, Fifth and Washington streets in Ketchum. For more information, visit www.sunvalleycenter.org or call 208-726-9491.