Moorestown Friends Meeting's Butterfly Workshop Captivates, Teaches

Thirty-one children and eight adults attended the September monarch butterfly workshop sponsored by the Friends Enrichment Program (FEP) of . Held in the Friends Meetinghouse and led by elementary school teachers Kandy Lippincott and Bonnie Smith, the workshop was an opportunity for people of all ages to learn about the life cycle and migratory patterns of the monarchs and to observe live monarch eggs, larvae, chrysalises, and adults.      

Newly emerging adult butterflies were tagged, so that their migration can be tracked, as they leave their breeding grounds in our midst and embark on their journey to their wintering grounds in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico.

Released outside the meetinghouse, the monarchs flew toward the sky under the gaze of workshop participants.  

Wonders of nature, the brightly colored monarchs can fly 2,500 miles over land, lakes and rivers. The ones that leave eastern states and Canadian provinces will fly over the Gulf of Mexico.

Their’s is a perilous journey. Survivors may begin to arrive in Mexico around Halloween, in time for the Nov. 1 celebration of El Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). They will remain in Mexico as the mariposas monarcas until next spring, when their descendants return to our gardens and parks.   

Provided by the Moorestown Friends Meeting.