In 1999, Drake White moved from the concrete jungle of Queens, New York to an apartment in San Antonio. It was certainly a change of scenery.
“One morning,” she says with a laugh, “I remember looking out my kitchen window to see cows walking across the parking lot. Only in Texas!”
Drake quickly grew to love the countryside near our Alamo City—the wide-open spaces between towns, the fields and rivers. “It drew me into a whole new realm of discovery,” she says.
Drake graduated from St. Phillips with a culinary degree in 2001. Soon afterwards, she started a garden in her backyard, a plot to supply fresh herbs for her kitchen. Those plants also attracted a variety of “bugs.” One of Drake’s neighbors, a gardener herself, had a quick suggestion: eradicate the pests!
This is when some “green worms” on a fennel plant changed Drake’s life. She used the internet to discover that those caterpillars, if left alone, would transform into beautiful black swallowtails.
“Not only did I let them be,” she said, “but I put one in a jar to watch its cycle. It was so amazing to see it emerge from its chrysalis!”
This was the beginning of Drake’s own metamorphosis. She began to study all kinds of bugs, spiders, caterpillars, and pollinators, intentionally turning her backyard into a habitat with native plants.
“I realized what a ‘plant desert’ I had around my home. It was time to transform!”
In 2014, a friend introduced her to Liz Robbins, former President of AAMN, hoping Liz would connect Drake to people interested in native plants and entomology. An indefatigable promoter of the MN program, Liz also convinced Drake to join the MN ranks.
Drake graduated with class #36 in April 2015. A couple months later she was asked to head up the new Butterfly Learning Center (BLC) at Phil Hardberger Park, a pollinator demonstration garden of AAMN. With the help of dedicated volunteers, she designed it and oversaw its grand opening in April 2017.
The BLC has been a blessing to Drake and the community. For instance, when Project Acorn (Area Children Organized to Replant Natives) provided money for a hatch house, Drake returned the favor by offering BLC classes for local schoolchildren.
“At first,” she says, “some of the students didn’t even want to touch a caterpillar, but personal contact helped them overcome that fear. When they held butterflies in their hands and released them into the air, the look on their faces was priceless. They had gone from caution to ‘Wow! How can I make this happen in my own backyard?’ This is why I volunteer!”
Drake’s long-term dreams are to help more and more people become conscious of native plants, transforming their own locales into habitats for pollinators. She does this through her work as a MN and through her own business called The Nectar Bar.
“We are a human ecosystem,” she says, “When we entwine our knowledge, we are so much better together!”
Written by MN Krin Van Tatenhove, Class #45
