About Us
Two brothers, one backyard garden, and a lot of steel
Pollinate Happiness started with the monarchs and bumble bees in Aidan and Ben Ellis's own native garden, and a question: why had most people never seen these plants up close?
Aidan and Ben Ellis are students in the Syosset school district. Their interests in native plants and pollinators were inspired by their own native pollinator garden. When Aidan was in 5th grade and Ben was in 6th grade they applied for a grant with the Bethpage Federal Credit Union to develop and install a planter with native Long Island pollinators. After winning the grant competition they successfully installed their first project in June of 2021 at Wawapek Preserve.
As of fall 2026 they have made five installations, the newest at their own high school.
What started as a grant application became a small organization with a repeatable model: find a public host site with sun and foot traffic, raise the money for materials through grants and sponsors, design and build a durable planter with a sign that explains itself, plant it with straight-species Long Island natives, and hand it off with a one-page care sheet. Two of the five installations were Eagle Scout projects with Scout Troop 170; the fourth is a wheelchair-accessible sensory garden, and the fifth was coordinated and designed by Aidan with the Syosset High School Environmental Club.
The brothers do the work themselves. They drew the honeycomb design, ground and polished the steel, stenciled the lettering, hauled a bench across a meadow, and now write the guides and maintain the tools on this site. Along the way they have been recognized by the Nassau County Legislature and featured in the Syosset Advance and the Jericho-Syosset News Journal.
Timeline
How it grew
2020
Aidan (5th grade) and Ben (6th grade) enter Bethpage Federal Credit Union's Difference Makers youth grant competition with a plan for a native pollinator planter bench. They win.
2021
June: the first bench is installed at Wawapek Preserve in Cold Spring Harbor. Local papers cover it. The honeycomb-and-bee design becomes the logo.
2023
October 4: a Nice-Planter community pollinator planter goes in at the Hicksville Public Library with Nice-Planter's support. Nassau County Legislator Rose Marie Walker presents both brothers with legislative citations.
2024
November 23: Ben completes the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary & Audubon Center planter as his Eagle Scout project with Troop 170.
2025
An accessible sensory planter and songbird nest boxes are built with Troop 170 and installed at the Nassau County Museum of Art with materials donated by The Home Depot.
2026
A new website launches with free zip-code tools for tracking monarchs, pollinators, birds, and invasive species. September 28: Aidan, now a senior, coordinates the fifth installation at Syosset High School with the Environmental Club and designs its laser-cut aluminum artwork for a Corten steel planter.
The model
What every installation has in common
A public host
Parks, libraries, nature centers, and museums that already welcome the public. Every planter is free to visit.
Straight-species natives
Coneflower, milkweed, bee balm, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, phlox, and little bluestem, chosen for three seasons of bloom and real wildlife value.
A sign that teaches
Each planter carries the project name, a design, sponsor credits, and this web address so a passerby can learn why the plants matter.
Built to last
Laser-cut steel or cedar, 18 inches or more of soil, drainage, and a care sheet that asks the host for almost nothing after the first summer.
Installations so far: Wawapek, Hicksville Library, Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary, Nassau County Museum of Art, Syosset High School.
Support the project
Want to help build the sixth?
Grants and private sponsorships pay for the steel, soil, and native plants. Every planter bench becomes a permanent, public lesson in why native plants matter, and every dollar goes toward the next one.