The Waggle Dance
The Waggle Dance
Location/Club: Club Name, District, State, Country
Keywords: LAND ECOSYSTEMS, Pollination, AUSTRALIA, Victoria, 9800, Canterbury, Food Security, Bee Health, Bee Research
Description
The Waggle Dance Project was created to provide a unique centrepiece to a planned Honey Festival and it has been used to promote Wold Bee Day. It relates to the waggle dance bees use to communicate the whereabouts of flowers and pollen to their hive. The honey festival is a future fundraising project of RC Canterbury, and the idea of the Waggle Dance is that its success and sense of fun will be attractive to sponsors and potential visitors to a festival with a sustainability theme.
Project Status: Ongoing
Start Date: 2018
Project last Updated: 16 August 2020
Project Impact
Volunteers: 15-20
Volunteer Hours: 250-300
In Kind Contributions: USD 3500
Project Contact(s)
Lili-Ann Krieger – liliannkATicloudDOTcom – 0438489032
Fiona Chalmers – ceo At wheenbeefoundations.org
OPPORTUNITIES
Scalability
The Waggle Dance has great scalable potential. It has been taken up locally, in New Zealand and in about 4 other countries. It appeals to a broad demographic and is especially suitable for school students to participate in. Soon to feature in NSW TOCAL open fields day 17/10/2020.
Volunteers Wanted
Once the COVID crisis is over, live events of the Waggle Dance are planned. At these events many volunteers will be needed to carry out the logistics of a live event.
Financial Support
The project was sponsored by a donor grant of $2700 AU. We hope for sponsors
OUR WHY
We are solving the problem of how to attract donors and participants to an annual Honey Festival and also how to raise awareness about the crucial role of bees in global food security
OUR HOW
We were motivated by COVID to take the waggle dance online in partnership with the WHEEN Bee Foundation. A compilation video has been created and it is great showcase of the Waggle Dance Project
OUR WHAT
The Waggle Dance, with its song and choreography is owned by RC Canterbury. We also own Buzz and Banjo, two mascots, one a European honeybee and the other an indigenous blue-banded bee.
BENEFITS
- Reach a wide ranging audience
- Leverage and reproduce the event in a variety of ways
- Attract sponsors in the medium to long term and to support environmental sustainability in line with RI’s new focus on environment.
- It was an engaging project and most Rotarians in the Canterbury club participated in some capacity.
Project More Info
This project is owned by Rotary Club of Canterbury and has been supported by another initiative of our club, Rotarians for Bees. We have gained excellent partnership in the WHEEN Bee Foundation.
The planned honey festival, with the Waggle Dance as a centrepiece, is a medium-term plan and the Waggle Dance with its increasing reach will attract sponsors and vendors and attendees. The funds raised from the honey festival will go to RCC to fund our local community, international and environmentally focused projects.
The song is hosted on all music platforms and can be downloaded anywhere in the world. All the proceeds of royalties go to RCC.
The mascots Buzz and Banjo are being used to create branding that is specifically associated with RCC and our project Rotarians for Bees.
The Waggle Dance statistics
- Over 100 videos submitted in a two-week period
- Age range 18 months to 87 years
- Many schools and preschools submitted videos to the challenge
- World Bee Day Facebook page engagement increased following by 9021%
- WBD Facebook followers increased by 587
- WBD Facebook posts reached over 100000
- RCC Facebook page also had increased traffic
- One Waggle Dance video had over 2000 views (Two twenty something young adults)
- Costa Georgiades’ two live Facebook events had a reach of 120 000 and generated over 2000 comments