A Coquitlam teen is hoping to take his bee-saving message to Southeast Asia — and help B.C. agricultural businesses make trade connections.
Jason Liao is a Grade 11 student at Gleneagle secondary who has been selected as a junior trade ambassador to Southeast Asia. He will join other Global Vision youth delegates who will fly to Singapore this summer to make connections with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Canadian embassy and Malaysian business owners.
To help fund the $6,000 trip, Liao has started a GoFundMe page where he promises to promote environmental issues while also helping businesses who sponsor him make connections with industry leaders during the July 25-Aug. 9 trip.
Liao, who is a co-founder of The Pollinator Project, which aims to raise awareness about the global decline of the pollinating population while also planting gardens with flowers important to bees, says he’s looking for business sponsors to help him take his message to the world.
“I see this as a chance to take this vocation to the international stage,” said Liao, who would like to be a diplomat or work in environmental or international law one day. “I feel this will be a stepping stone,” he said.
In the past year for example, Liao and his fellow students from Pinetree and Gleneagle have been planting bee-loving gardens in otherwise unused space at daycares, high schools and dozens of homes in Coquitlam.
They also presented recently at Surrey and Port Coquitlam city halls, asking politicians and planners to permit beneficial weeds and plants in new capital projects.
“We’d like to see a whole bunch of wildflowers there,” Liao said.
To contact Liao, email jasonliao999gmail.com.
