Mary Ann Ruppert RIDE TO REMEMBER

June 25- July 19

Dr. Charlie Barnard and his wife Teresa will depart from Wildwood Baptist Church on June 25th for a 9000-mile motorcycle ride up the Alaskan Canadian Highway to raise funding for Our PLACE Adult Day Center programs and needed expansion space, as well as for a handicap transport vehicle for SCHAS (Senior Citizen Home Assistance Services). Together these two organizations provide support for over 3,500 seniors who are experiencing difficulties with maintaining sustainment functions or suffering from the effects of Dementia related diseases.

The ride is named in honor of Mary Ann Ruppert who was an educator in the Knoxville City Schools and was instrumental in starting their Special Education Program. Mary Ann passed away from Alzheimer’s in 2020 and is survived by her husband Mike.

You can become a sponsor for as little as a penny a mile. All sponsors receive an event T-shirt. Any donation will help these two non-profits. Please consider supporting The Mary Ann Ruppert Ride to Remember. The ride will be kicked off with a Departure Lunch and Blessing of the Bikers on June 25th at Wildwood Baptist Church in Maryville at 11:30 am. It will end with a return dinner at First Baptist Church of Tellico Village on July 19th at 5 pm. Entertainment and discussion of events will occur at the dinner. Dinner costs are $10 per person for non-sponsors. Tickets can be obtained at both churches.

If you would like to contribute, checks may be made payable to Our Place TN or SCHAS. Checks to Our Place may be mailed to Our Place, 103 Cheeyo Way, Loudon, TN 37774. Checks to SCHAS may be mailed to 7121 Regal Lane Ste. 100, Knoxville, TN 37918. For more information on SCHAS or Our PLACE go to www.schas.org or www.ourplacetn.org

Our Place 103 Cheeyo Way, Loudon OurPlaceTN.org (865)657-7222

By lisa gRugin

The first half of the year has certainly been interesting in the landscape. Some of your plants are looking great, some are not. I finally gave in and removed a boxwood and two enormous loropetalums in my yard, but everything else seems to be recovering. Hopefully your yard is getting back to normal as well!

So, what is there to do in your yard in June? A lot! But let’s talk first about one of my passions: pollinator plants. Our focus on clearing land and establishing lawns over the past few decades has not done any favors for our environment, and there is a high cost to pay. More than 30% of the food we eat every day relies on or benefits from pollinators, including the most nutritious foods. In addition, coffee and chocolate depend on them, so without our pollinators, we would be hungry, malnourished, and cranky!

Who are our pollinators? Primarily bees, but not just the ones you know about. While honeybees and bumble bees are the best known, there are more than 4,000 bee species native to North America. The vast majority are solitary bees where the female makes her nest alone. Most are not aggressive and don’t sting. Honeybees are the primary workers, responsible for 80% of flowering plants. Bumble bees are also crucial because they pollinate both flowers and agricultural crops. Unfortunately, honeybees and bumble bees are facing extinction risk.

Bees aren’t the only pollinators, however. Butterflies, moths, beetles, birds, bats, and even flies can serve as secondary pollinators. I could write this entire article about the importance of caring for them, but I don’t have room. Instead, let’s focus on what you can do to help.

The number one thing is to plant pollinator friendly flowers. Native sun perennials are your best bet, but you also need overlapping and sequential blooms. More is better, but even a small bed can attract a host of pollinators!

The second thing for you to do is provide a nest site. Leave patches of bare earth, brush piles, and nesting blocks. Plant host plants such as butterfly weed for eggs and caterpillars, and provide a bowl of wet sand or a shallow basin with pebbles as a water source.

Lastly, protect them from chemicals. Use as few as possible, and use them wisely. Do you really need to spray a bug that has a short life cycle? Please educate yourself about good bugs and bad bugs, and always use the least toxic product first.

Now let’s go over what