Join Lake Zurich Rotary for a fascinating meeting this Monday February 6th, 6:30 pm, at Ela Library.  This is a hybrid meeting.  Please send an email request to lzrotary@gmail.com to request the Zoom link.
 
At the February 6 Rotary Meeting at the Ela Library, Lauren Rosenthal and Yolanda Prado of the Ela Libary will talk about a new initiative the Ela Library is launching this spring: a partnership with Rotary in support of the new Rotary pillar: Sustainability. We will be educating the public about the importance of solitary bees -- 90% of Illinois bees are solitary bees (meaning they do not live in hives like honey and bumble bees do), and the most common is the Mason Bee.
 
With nearly 40% of bees facing extinction today, in spring 2023, the library and Rotary will encourage patrons to cultivate Illinois’ Mason Bee population by building bee houses.  Similar to birdhouses, bee houses are relatively simple in form, consisting of a birdhouse-like structure containing a series of exposed, reed-like tubes that the bees can lay their eggs in. We’ll be using the instructions from the U of I College of Agricultural instructions using recycled and eco-friendly materials like paper tubes, paper, natural clay, steel cans, and natural wood. Each bee home will be etched with the library logo and the Rotary logo using our Makerspace GlowForge equipment. In addition, we plan to sponsor speakers to educate the public about the importance of Mason Bees. 
 
 At the Rotary meeting on February 6 we’ll have the Ela Library’s Makerspace Coordinator Yolanda Prado as a speaker, explaining the project and showing a sample bee house. Yolanda is in charge of the Library’s Makerspace, and is an expert at the GlowForge & 3D printers we have available for the public.