Environmental Echo

Looking For ‘Page-Turner’ Ideas? St. Louis Has Them A-Z

In 2025, In Search of Manhood: American Men’s Movements Past and Present, was selected as top pop culture book for 2024 at the New Orleans convention of the Popular Culture Association.

Environmental Echo editor and writer Don Corrigan will present a two-session continuing education course on getting your book published at Webster University this fall.

Slated for Nov. 7 and Nov. 14, the seminar on how to become a published author will provide tips on query letters, book pitches, outlines, marketing, agents, contracts, copyright and legal concerns.

Two sessions on publishing are set for Saturdays during the day through the Webster University Continuing Ed. There is a $50 fee. Enrollment is limited. Details are available at: https://continuinged.webster.edu/

Author Corrigan has written 12 books with such publishers as Reedy Press, Greenwood/Praeger, McFarland, Arcadia Publishing, and Webster University Press. His latest book published in 2026 is “Scenic Missouri” with photography by Diana Linsley.

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Missouri FFA and 4-H members participated in Hogs for Hunger during the Missouri State Fair. Swine exhibitors donated pigs which provide 36,125 servings to Feeding Missouri to address hunger.

At the 2026 Missouri State Fair, agricultural leaders, Missouri FFA and Missouri 4-H members and partners celebrated another successful Missouri Farmers Care Foundation Drive to Feed Kids. This year’s effort provided 825,196 meals for Missouri children and families facing food insecurity.

With 1 in 5 Missouri children experiencing hunger, the Drive to Feed Kids continues to unite Missouri agriculture in the fight against hunger. Since launching in 2017, the initiative has provided more than 14.5 million meals to children and families across the state.

“The Drive to Feed Kids highlights what Missouri agriculture can accomplish when we work together,” said Ashley McCarty, Executive Director of Missouri Farmers Care. “From farmers and ranchers to FFA and 4-H members, volunteers, businesses and community partners, thousands of people have united to help provide meals for Missouri children and families. We are proud to celebrate agriculture’s incredible impact and grateful to everyone who helped make it possible.”

This year’s activities at the Missouri State Fair capped another year of statewide hunger relief efforts led by Missouri’s agricultural community. Missouri youth organizations once again played a leading role:

More than 850 Missouri FFA members packed 252,564 meals during the Missouri FFA Day of Service at the Missouri State Fair while also donating fresh produce grown through student agricultural education projects.
4-H members raised resources to provide 250,271 meals through 4-H Feeding Missouri. 4-H clubs, FFA chapters, and collegiate organizations provided 145,748 meals in their communities through matching grants from the Missouri Farmers Care Foundation. Fairgoers supported Drive to Feed Kids during $2 Tuesday, contributing funds and non-perishable food donations equivalent to 53,231 meals.

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The 2026 Scenic America Symposium is at Missouri Botanical Garden, where guest speaker Don Corrigan will present on his new book, “Scenic Missouri.”

Sister Jan Hayes, RSM, longtime media instructor at Webster University, will lead a nature walk to view a labyrinth, wisdom garden, and cosmic trail at the Mercy Conference Retreat Center on North Geyer Road in Frontenac.

The Retreat Center Labyrinth is an expansive, outdoor 11-circuit walking meditation path located on the grounds. At 88 feet in diameter, it is twice as wide as a standard French Labyrinth and is considered one of the largest permanent outdoor labyrinths in Missouri.

Sister Hayes will be accompanied by Don Corrigan, professor and author, who will give a book talk on “Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri.” More details are available for the 2-4 p.m., Sunday Sept. 20 event at the Retreat Center: 314-909-4646, or email: jhayes@mercycenterstl.org.

“Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri: Lakes, Trails, Caverns and Vistas,” includes landscape portraits by photographer Diana Lindsley and prose by Corrigan. He is  a longtime journalism professor at Webster University Journalism Professor Don Corrigan.

Dawn Stringfield, executive director at the Retreat Center, has arranged for the event to be livestreamed at the retirement center for Mercy sisters, which  is also on the Mercy Center Campus.

Hikers and bikers, poets and philosophers, tree huggers and flower children, all will take delight in the book on the outdoors by Corrigan.

“Scenic Natural Wonders of Missouri” is an illustrated collection of 80 state nature sites. It’s the perfect guide for shutter bugs to locate memorable images, and to capture memories on their cell phones or digital cameras.

“My first outdoor guide in 2007 featured pencil drawings,” said Corrigan. “This new guide boasts colorful photos. Diana’s shots of cypress trees in Allred Lake, antlered beasts in Lone Elk Park, or 100,000 snow geese in Big State Park are awesome.

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MDC and the Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center, Missouri Pollinator Network, St. Charles County Parks, Missouri State Parks, and other partners will host the Pollinator Palooza Festival on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 10 a.m.—3 p.m. at the Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center in St. Charles.

As insect pollinators like monarch butterflies flit from plant to plant in search of food, they spread pollen crucial to the reproduction of their host plants.  More than 75 percent of the Earth’s flowering plants depend on pollinators. One out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of pollinating insects.  That’s worth celebrating.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) will join the Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center, Missouri Pollinator Network, St. Charles County Parks, Missouri State Parks, and a host of other partners at the Pollinator Palooza Festival on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 10 a.m.—3 p.m.  This fun and free community festival takes place at the Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center in St. Charles and has something special for all ages.

Pollinator Palooza will celebrate all pollinating creatures that help our plants thrive.  The event will offer interactive ways to learn about pollinator declines and what people can do to help.

The event will feature many hands-on activities such as kids’ crafts, games, exhibits, native garden demonstrations, food trucks, and more.  Missouri-made vendors with native plants, bird feeders and nesting boxes, local crafts, and produce will also be on hand.  Three different speakers from Missouri Botanical Gardens, MU Extension, and the St. Louis Zoo will be giving talks throughout the event. Visitors can purchase native plants and get helpful advice on how to grow pollinator-sustaining plants at home.  Guests can also enjoy viewing and hiking the site’s 150-acre restored Howell Prairie.  There will be learning activities both indoors and outdoors.

The Weldon Spring Site Interpretive Center is located at 7295 Highway 94, approximately two miles south of I-64/40. Parking will be available on-site. For more information, call 636-300-2600.

Pollinator Palooza 2026 sponsors include Planthaven Farms, Missouri Wildflower Nursery, Wild Ones St. Charles, Great Rivers Greenway and Ameren.

Pollinator Palooza contributors also include the Missouri Master Naturalists tri-chapters, Missouri Master Gardeners, MU Extension Office, and other affiliate organizations that advocate for the protection and conservation of all pollinators.

To learn more about native plants beneficial to insect pollinators, go to https://short.mdc.mo.gov/4sL.