Jesse Higginbotham Technology Trust

Careers in the sciences often start with childhood experiences! Monarch butterflies provide interesting and beautiful introductions to biology (the study of life), entomology (the study of insects), and lepidopterology (the study of butterflies and moths). Watch this video of Jesse's dad Jerome Higginbotham providing kindergarten students with a fun lesson on Monarchs with an up-close view of a newly emerged Monarch Butterfly.
The Monarch chrysalis was donated to the school by the Jesse Higginbotham Technology Trust 😍🦋🦋🦋

Kindergarten students with Monarch Butterfly Kindergarten students get an up-close view of a newly emerged Monarch Butterfly. The Monarch chrysalis was donated to the school by the Jesse Higginbotham Te...

It's a dreary day in more ways than one! What a good opportunity to talk about some of the wonderful long-term projects JHTT has been working on to lift some spirits!

In the fall of 2014, we created a native plant garden at Jesse's elementary school, Cardinal Valley Elementary and named it the "Peace Art Garden." Then In the fall of 2016, we added a variety of Milkweed plants and certified it as a Monarch Waystation.
All the native plants in the Peace Art Garden were propagated at the Dunbar Memorial Garden, an all native plant garden we created in 2007 that is located on the campus of Jesse's high school, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.

This year, in the summer of 2018 the Science teacher at Cardinal Valley Elementary discovered EIGHT chrysalises (chysalides) that had been formed along the concrete windowsills that edge one side of the garden. Having never seen so many "in the wild" we were excited to capture video of this remarkable occurrence!

Read more about this project on our blog: http://jessehigginbotham.com/blog/peace-art-garden-at-cardinal-valley-elementary-a-danaus-plexippus-success-story/

And check out this guided video tour of the CVE garden!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM1BXoHP_Lw&t=13s

The worker bees at JHTT spent a lovely afternoon cutting up recycled paper bags to make into seed packets! Fall is the best time for planting seeds for many native plants. All Little Yellow Bird Studio seeds come from our neighborhood and school gardens. You can purchase wedding favors and other assorted goodies at https://www.amazon.com/handmade/LittleYellowBirdStudio. 100% of proceeds fund garden maintenance, scholarships, and helping meet other community needs.

Thanks to all the wonderful folks who came out to support us yesterday by purchasing plants or just coming by to say Hi! Thanks too to the many hard-working volunteers who handled cashier duties and helped set up, break down and carry plants for our shoppers. Funds raised will be used for next years’ Dunbar scholarship in Jesse’s name

A great big extra-large hugemongous shout-out of thanks to the Trusts own Director of Community and Social Services Joyce Crawford who let us know of the Privett Recovery Center’s need for plants, seeds, supplies and raised beds! We are glad to help them gear up for gardening this summer

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Here are just a few of the ways your purchase at our Native Plant Sale helps the community: an annual $1,500 need-based college scholarship to a Dunbar senior, new garden supplies and equipment for the Privett Recovery Center, the installation of a Monarch Waystation at the Women’s Hope Center, free educational classes at Village Branch Library and of course, the continued care and maintenance of our “labor of love” the Dunbar Memorial Garden.

Whether you’re starting your first butterfly garden, looking for a plant that will thrive in a “trouble” spot in your yard or adding native plants to help save the bees, we’ve got something for everybody. And proceeds go to a great cause! Rain or shine our 9th annual Native Plant Sale is next Saturday from 10am to 1pm at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School

Mark your calendars! Our 9th Native Plant Sale will be held on Saturday May 12th at Dunbar High School. Proceeds from the sale benefit the Jesse Higginbotham Technology Scholarship Fund, the Mindtriggerz Project, the Dunbar Memorial Garden and our work in the Lexington community in Jesse’s honor