March 1, 2008
A south Florida group of girl scouts has been working very hard to establish a butterfly garden--as a community project-- for the residents of a nursing home called "The Palace." The girl scouts are requesting about 10 butterflies and these will be released at the formal dedication of the butterfly garden on March 1.
Wings of Hope has expanded its purpose to encourage recipients of Wings of Hope butterflies to develop habitat for butterflies. In this particular project they are already doing this so we thought it so appropriate to reward this community effort with a donation of butterflies.
The establishment of the garden with many host and nectar plants to support Florida species, coincides with our organization's efforts to be "green" and support "green" efforts. They have worked many months on their plan and have grown many plants already. They are also "rebuilding" a greenhouse on the grounds with donations from Home Depot.
In response to our request for butterflies for our first Wings of Hope, Inc. request for March 1, we have received responses from two donors. Greathouse Butterflies and another, anonymous donor will send butterflies to this event. Butterfly Boutique (Linda Rogers, Nigel Venters, Paul Chesterfield) are offering to help finance the shipping charges of the second donation. So, shipping charges for both shipments will be covered.
This is a unique and commendable act in which we see youth helping to bring joy to the elderly in their community. We are especially grateful for the efforts of these young girls to establish butterfly habitat and to the seniors who will maintain the garden.
Thank you to the above donors for their generosity.
Melanie McCarthy, Board Member, Wings of Hope, Inc.
www.wingsofhopebutterflies.org
Release Report:
Dear Wings of Hope, Inc.:
What an amazing morning we had. The Ceremony was so beautiful that several of the parents were brought to tears. Many of the nursing home residents, even those in wheelchairs, were present to witness the event. Two of my girls held speeches, one in English and one in Spanish for the residents, then we cut the large red ribbon we tied across the entrance. Upon entering the garden we then released the butterflies and they were beautiful! Two little old ladies in wheelchairs were just so excited by the butterflies, one of them excitedly pointing and exclaming that she wanted to hold one. The butterflies were still a little sleepy so they cooperated beautifully for all the photo poses and this little old lady got to hold a monarch on her outstretched finger for several minutes and she was beside herself with joy.
What we had noticed when we first got to the nursing home before the ceremony was that two of our milkweed plants had been completely eaten and we found two monarch caterpillars crawling on plumbago plants. So it seems that our garden is already home to some local butterflies. The girls were excited to see that.
The Miami Herald did show up and their photographer took many pictures. We are going to be appearing in the Thursday newpaper in the local neighbors sections of this week. I printed out the Wings of Home webpages and gave him those copies so he could read about your organization. I asked him specifically to mention the Wings of Hope and if possible to include your website address. Hopefully he will do just that. We have amazing pictures and I will create a CD for you and mail it to you in the next week.
In the meantime I will attach two photos until I am able to send you more on a CD.
Thank you again for all your help. Please forward this email to the two breeders who donated our butterflies. Their contribution was spectacular.
Sincerely,
Magita Rojas
April 26, 2008
I have a request for an event on April 26 in South Carolina. The summary of the event is as follows:
"The South Carolina Chapter Pee Dee Division of the March of Dimes will be holding its annual signature event, March for Babies. We are expecting over 2,000 attendees and volunteers at this event.
The dollars raised from our March for Babies campaign will support the mission of the March of Dimes, which is to prevent birth defects, prematurity and infant mortality and to ensure the health of all babies.
We would like to do a butterfly release during our opening ceremony and request 25 butterflies. 24 to represent the 24 babies born premature everyday in South Carolina and an extra one for a family that is very involved with our local organization that just lost a baby at 38 weeks."
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Please contact me if you are able to donate to this event.
Remember, donations by U.S. citizens are tax deductible.
Thank you.
Alicia Baylor.
