Butterfly Palace needs help to Fly

Bird Butterfly

By Bob Behme
Five Cities Gazette
Arroyo Grande, California
Sept 13, 2000

Butterflies, fragile, beautiful creatures, have been called "God's shared experience"; to which can be added a new and frightening epithet ­ nearly extinct. The monarch is the only butterfly to migrate, which is rare because very few creatures do. They are extremely endangered say such experts as Lincoln Brower. Its habitat is withering. Its future is in doubt. Enter the Butterfly Palace, the idea of Sheila Boone, the west coast's "bufferfly angel", Boone has plans to build a unique butterfly research center on the Nipomo Mesa, a center that would attract scientists and tourists, raise money to study the insect and to protect its dwindling habitat. The concept could be the butterfly's salvation. Boone has found suitable land, some 400 acres near U.S. 101, and is trying to raise $20,000 to secure an option on the property. It would buy time while she doubles energies to gather enough to purchase it.

Mr. and Mrs. Ed Petrelli, owners of a jiffy Lube franchise operates several facilities along the Central Coast, started things rolling with a generous donation and additional sums are arriving daily - but Boone says it is not quite enough. More is needed and in a hurry. Help is also coming from Image Press, a Los Altos Hills, California publisher of children's books. The firm recently issued Malinda Marthia Meets Mariposa, a book written for 4 to 8-yearolds, that describes a meeting between Malinda Martha, and Mariposa, a monarch butterfly. It artfully describes the butterfly's life cycle, including metamorphosis, in terms a child can understand. Boone has written a forward to the book and is donating her fees to the project. The publisher is also donating a percent­age of their profits. Checks may be sent to the Butterfly Palace, PO. Box 171, Pismo Beach, Calif., 93448.

Information is available by calling 473-0887 or from the internet at www.butterflypalace.org.


Copyright © S. Boone Productions, Siamak Sehat, Photographer

 

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