Since graduating from Greens Farms Academy in 2003, Sefra Alexandra has been on a mission: preparing people around the globe to survive.
Jesse Levin and Sefra Alexandra.
She and her twin brother Jesse Levin have brought “readiness skills” to the veteran, disaster response and entrepreneurial communities.
As part of their efforts, their company Tactivate outfitted customers with gear, and offered advice and training for every conceivable emergency, at a Bedford Square pop-up shop.
Their Norwalk-based Readiness Collective invites residents to train and learn alongside medics, veterans and first responders, in a “fun club-like environment.”
But Sefra cares about the environment too.
As the lead “boatanist” — not “botanist” — of the Boatanical Expedition, she coordinates The Ecotype Project. They grow seed crops of Connecticut’s native pollinator plants, bringing them to nursery growers and homeowners to produce plants that restore native pollinator habitat.
In 2021 they paddled in outrigger canoes down the Connecticut River to Long Island Sound. Along the way they removed invasive species, and spread “the seeds of ecological resilience.”
Of course, rivers are not the only places under threat.
Cockenoe Island is rife with “mile-a-minute.” The vine smothers other herbaceous plants, shrubs, even trees, by growing over them, almost as quickly as the name implies. (Click here to learn more.)
Mile-a-minute is a very invasive species.
On Friday, April 26, the Boatanical Expedition invites residents to paddle to Cockenoe Island, where they’ll remove mile-a-minute.
The date is significant: It’s the 247th anniversary of the Battle of Compo Hill. On that day in 1777 local Minute Men fought Redcoats, on their way back from burning the patriots’ Danbury arsenal.
British ships were anchored off Compo Beach, not far from Cockenoe.
Sefra calls the upcoming event “The Minute WoMan Mile to Fight Off Mile-a-Minute.”
It’s a clunky name, but it includes all the main ideas: Minute Men. Mile-a-Minute. Cockenoe Island, a mile off shore. And women are more than welcome.
RSVP to theboatanists@gmail.com, to reserve a spot. Bring a canoe, paddleboard or kayak, plus a life jacket, canteen, gardening gloves and vine removing tools.
Sefra — and the planet — thank you.
(From the Revolutionary War in 1777 to Cockenoe Island in 2024, “06880” is where Westport meets the world — every day. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
