Local photographer Sheila Boone's plans to construct a multi-million dollar "living museum" of butterflies, that will include an interactive learning center for school children, has caught the attention of Great Western Tours and Travel.
Bill Siefke, president of the touring company out of Pasadena, recently issued Boone a check for an undisclosed amount in support of the project, a project he says could prove beneficial to his business.
"It sounds like a wonderful idea," Siefke said. "Seeing" the butterflies that migrate to the Pismo Beach area is definitely a highlight among our customers."
Great Western currently provides bus tours in January and February from the Los Angeles area.
One of the stops include the butterfly grove in Pismo Beach where passengers are treated to the color spectacle of wintering Western Monarchs fluttering among the eucalyptus trees in the groves off Highway 1.
While the butterflies are there for only a short period before they continue with their migration, the construction of what Boone has proposed as the "Daniel Boone Butterfly Palace" could allow Great Western to expand its tours and provide its customers with a more extensive look at the butterflies, their history on the Central Coast and the background of their annual migration.
That could prove to be good news to Ernest Andrade, manager of Marie Callender's in Pismo Beach, which could see a big boost in business if Plans for the butterfly palace move forward.
He also has contribute an undesclosed amount to the project.
We would be directly affected, and so would most of the businesses in this area because this is where those tour buses stop when they come here," Andrade said.
Great Western is just one tour company that books banquet reservations with Marie Callender's a year in advance to accommodate its traveling group.
"They bring in a lot of people, at least 50 per bus, and that translates into money," Andrade said.
"It's just good all around business sense to support a project like this because, in the end, I think it's going to end up promoting a lot of local business."