Spotlight on Volunteers!
April 19-25, 2025 is National Volunteer Week, a time to shine a light on the people and causes that inspire us to serve. Here at the Florida Wildflower Foundation, our greatest impact happens when we support grassroots, community-led initiatives. Our dedicated volunteers are on the ground, making wildflower conservation and outreach happen every day.
This week, we’re highlighting three incredible women who are making a big difference: Kristy Butgereit, Elora Pfriender and Paula Waterman.
Read on as we celebrate their wonderful work:
KRISTY BUTGEREIT volunteers with our Wildflower Watchers program, monitoring Geddie Road in Leon County alongside her homeschooled teenager. Each season, she collects and reports data on bloom timing, species presence, and site conditions — valuable information that supports the protection and management of Florida’s native wildflower corridors.
Why do you volunteer with us? I volunteer to monitor a roadside for multiple reasons. First, I believe wildlife corridors are important, no matter how small, and collecting data that could help protect or expand wildflower habitats is meaningful. This work also connects directly to my homeschooled high schooler’s biology and ecology studies. Service learning and citizen science are important highlights of her curriculum. Also, it is an opportunity to test and strengthen my knowledge of native wildflowers. This volunteer program keeps me engaged and learning.
I also love slowing down and noticing the small things. My teens joke that I can’t walk anywhere without stopping to literally smell the flowers, watch bees or follow behind a busy beetle. This gives me another reason to do that. I hope that bringing my eldest along to help with data collection will promote her sense of stewardship toward Earth and its ecosystems.
How did you first get involved? I’m a Florida Master Naturalist and am always looking for meaningful volunteer, citizen science and service learning opportunities. I saw the program through the Florida Wildflower Foundation on Facebook and immediately jumped at the chance to get involved.
What’s your favorite wildflower? It’s hard to choose just one. I love different wildflowers for different reasons. Black-eyed Susan is one of my main favorites because it’s so common along roadsides, easy to identify, and beautiful both in the wild and in my garden. Purple coneflower is another favorite. I have it in my garden as well, but I’ve never seen it in the wild, so I’m always hoping to come across it in the panhandle. Frogfruit reminds me of my childhood in Central Florida. I only recently learned its name. Other dainty flowers like Lyreleaf sage and Clasping Venus’ looking glass were some of the first wildflowers I identified in my yard during No Mow March. I love to greet them each early spring. I also have a soft spot for Swamp sunflower. In the early fall it creates this incredible large mass of yellow that glows in the predusk sunlight. It’s a favorite for sure! Plus, the bees love it!
What I love most is the life surrounding wildflowers: the pollinators, insects, birds and lizards that depend on thriving wildflowers. I get caught up watching tiny interactions from the base of the plants to the blooms. If it’s in a garden or on the roadsides, I love all the color and activity.
ELORA PFRIENDER is a graduate student in writing and communication. In addition to representing the Foundation at tabling events, she helps build our online educational resources by writing pollinator profiles.
Why do you volunteer with us? As a busy graduate student studying rhetoric and composition, I don’t have as much time as I’d like to get outside and enjoy just being in nature. Volunteering with the Foundation allows me to do that while also educating others, whether I’m at an outdoor tabling event or at home writing profiles on our amazing native pollinators. Although I’m certainly far from an expert, I’ve loved learning more about Florida’s wildflowers and all of the amazing biodiversity right in our backyard!
How did you first get involved? Around the beginning of 2025, when I became a bit overwhelmed by negative news, I decided to channel my feelings into something productive. I reached out to many local organizations that I saw doing good in the community. FWF was one of those. Given my background as a writer and officer in my university’s entomology club, I was offered the opportunity to resume the then-paused Know Your Native Pollinators series.
What’s your favorite wildflower? Such a tough question! I’d have to go with Frogfruit. It’s cute, tiny, widespread (it was all over my yard growing up), and attracts a surprising amount of pollinators—especially the also cute and tiny “blues” (Polyommatinae), which are some of my favorite butterflies.
PAULA WATERMAN Paula is a dedicated volunteer with Bee City Gainesville, consistently showing up for meetings, community plantings and outreach events. Whether helping install pollinator gardens or engaging with the public, she plays an important role in promoting pollinator conservation and connecting the community to the importance of native plants.
Why do you volunteer with the Florida Wildflower Foundation? I volunteer with Bee City Gainesville and the Florida Wildflower Foundation to spread the word about native plants’ essential role in ecology. After planting host plants on my own property, helping to plant native community gardens is one little thing that I can do.
How did you first get involved? I first got involved with Bee City in 2024 while promoting the Fall Horticultural Expo for the Gainesville Garden Club. I loved the collaboration at the Bee City meetings and am still attending them. All levels of government, nonprofits, small businesses and citizens work together on behalf of native insects.
What’s your favorite wildflower? My favorite wildflower is a Corkystem passionflower. I planted one at a small trellis that happened to be beside an azalea. The vine blended in as it covered the azalea. I had no idea that one host plant would be the nursery for countless zebra longwing and gulf fritillary butterflies. Then I added Dune sunflower for nectar to feed them all!