Spreading Love and Monarch Learning
Susan Meyers shares her recent visit to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico where she met up with Estela Romero and students.
Greetings,
The 28th season of Symbolic Monarch Migration is almost wrapped up! Estela Romero has been on the move, making her way to 33 schools near the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, handing out over 1,000 Ambassador butterflies to eager Mexican students. But the school visits aren't over yet! They'll keep going into March until the 'late migrants' reach their resting place.
During my time in Mexico this year, I had the incredible opportunity to tag along with Ms. Romero to visit one of the schools that received Ambassador butterflies. But it wasn't to sit back and watch her teach one of the lesson plans – it was to dive into conversations with the students. And let me tell you, it was a special day. Valentine’s Day (or as they call it in Mexico, El Dia del Amor y la Amistad, The Day of Love and Friendship) was in full swing, with students busy crafting heartfelt messages for their family and friends. Their homework? Give their family members a big, warm hug. Talk about spreading love!
At the entrance to El Rosario Sanctuary, Ms. Romero passed along stacks of letters from the students, collected so far. These heartfelt notes, along with an assortment of life-sized butterflies made by various groups, will be stuffed into Spring Return Envelopes. Our goal? To mail all these envelopes by April 1st.
Curious about where your Ambassador might be? Just use the handy SEARCH function on the website, enter your city or school name and information will be provided.
Keep your eyes peeled for the 2024-25 Leader Packet, hitting our website in May 2024. And mark your calendars – the final postmark deadline for our next season is October 18, 2024.
We're hoping you'll join us for another amazing season!
If you haven't already, don't forget to register with Journey North. Need a refresher on how to do that? Check out these instructions. Monarchs are projected to leave the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve over the next few weeks. If you spot a real monarch, be sure to submit those observational reports to Journey North! Every observation helps.
Susan Meyers
The Symbolic Monarch Migration is a project of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum) and Monarchs Across Georgia (a committee of the nonprofit organization, the Environmental Education Alliance). Journey North manages the interactive Symbolic Monarch Migration Participant Maps and hosts educational materials on its website. Monarchs Across Georgia administers the project including coordinating the exchange of symbolic butterflies among 2000+ classrooms in three countries, engaging a contract worker to provide lessons and deliver materials in Mexico, and raising funds for the project's continuation.
Consider a donation to the Symbolic Monarch Migration and/or the Mexico Book Project.
The Monarch Butterfly Fund supports, through their Small Grant Program, our "Beyond the Mexico Book Project" providing funding for books and environmental education efforts in the schools surrounding the Mexican monarch sanctuaries.
