More than 530 visitors attended the kid-friendly, family event at the Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center.
October 5, 2026
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With a wealth of educational opportunities and kid-friendly activities — and a few bees and butterflies buzzing around — the 2026 Pollinator Palooza event held at the Weldon Spring Site in St. Charles County, Missouri, featured a host of activities supporting healthy pollinator habitats and offering kids and adults alike the chance to learn more about just howbees, insects, and other pollinator friends impact our environment.
More than 530 visitors attended the 2026 event, which focused on the vital role Missouri-area pollinators have in the delicate structure of our local environment and offered visitors a great chance to have fun and soak up the sun!
“Pollinator Palooza is an amazing event that succeeds on several levels,” noted Weldon Spring Site Manager Rebecca Roberts. “The event offers valuable information on our local pollinator communities and the impact they carry in the environment. And the event also provides a connection to the community and a vital opportunity to learn more and do more here at the site — a chance to take advantage of the natural resources the site offers.”
More than 30 local vendors offered visitors garden and flower-related products for purchase, while sponsor and community booths provided educational information.
Kids in attendance were “buzzing” with excitement thanks to a menu of fun activities, including the Buzz Stop. This activity featured specially trained staff carefully catching bumblebees from the Jeannie Moe Memorial Native Plant Educational Garden and cooling them down to make the bees sleepy enough to let participants examine them up close and identify their species. Once the bees warmed up, they flew back to their pollination duties. The staff members will send the collected data to the Missouri Bumblebee Atlas.
“Our key focus here at the Weldon Spring Site is the long-term protection of the environment and promoting the beneficial reuse of the land,” Roberts added. “At events like Pollinator Palooza and Garden Expo, we can share these resources with local communities to enlist their help in sustaining the environment.”
Pollinator Palooza is held at the Weldon Spring Site through a partnership with the Missouri Pollinator Network, Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri State Parks, and St. Charles County Parks.