Pismo Salutes it's Monarchs
Times Press
Recorder
November 8, 2002
Story by Mike Hodgson
PISMO
BEACH - Although only about 8,000 monarch butterflies have arrived to spend the
winter, the city welcomed them with open wings Saturday with the first annual Butterflies
on the Beach festival.
Although
the event didn't draw the huge crowds of out-of-towners that events like the
Clam Festival do, organizers were pleased with the turnout of local residents
and felt the festival was a huge success for the children, who donned butterfly
wings and antennae for the parade.
"Some
of the costumes are great," said Rick Turton as
he sold sweatshirts and T-shirts with the festival logo from a booth near the
pier. "It gives the parents something to do with the kids."
"The
kids are having a ball," agreed City Councilman Joe Crescione.
"The parents are really getting into it.
"I
see lots more friends and neighbors than I'm seeing visitors," Crescione continued. "I don't think I've seen this
many locals turn out for an event like this before.
Rudy Natoli, Mayor of Pismo Beach holding " Free As A Butterfly " Monarch awareness certificate signed by Dr. Lincoln Brower, Dr. Kingston Leong and Sheila Boone.
"It's
too bad people don't know about the butterflies enough because one of these
days this will be really important. "
That
importance was emphasized with the presentation of a special award to Mayor
Rudy Natoli for increasing awareness of monarch
butterflies. Signed by
The
festival featured a parade of children, most of them from
The
parade wound along the Promenade beside the beach to the pier, where the
children made a turn around Miss Teen Arroyo Grande Alison I Cebulla and filed past the judges' stand - twice - before
follow the mayor and his entourage on the Butterfly Migration to see their
artwork on display in downtown businesses.
Other
children visited with Jokey the Clown and his buddy
Joey or KSBY, the peacock mascot of KSBY-TV, or paused to have their faces
painted while parents purchased books about monarch butterflies or listened to
the music of Guitar Wiz Billy Foppiano and the Dober Men on the pier.
Still
others boarded shuttle buses or drove down Highway 1 to visit the Monarch
Butterfly Grove, where Natural History Association docents like Jack Beigle provided information about the butterflies'
migratory lifestyle and, with is telescope, gave visitors like Chelsea Buckler
Laughlin, age 11, of Santa Barbara a look at the small clusters of monarchs in
the high branches of the eucalyptus trees, while student Jessica Kwong, 9, of Guadalupe worked on a monarch report for
school.
Beigle had just explained how as many as
200,000 butterflies may fill the grove in winter when the clouds parted,
sunlight streamed down on the grove and a collective "oooooh"
went up from the crowd.
High
above, wings glistening in the warm sunshine, a whole flock of butterflies took
flight, a symbol, perhaps, of the fledgling festival organizers hope will grow
as the years go by.
Editor Mike Hodgson can be reached at (805) 489-4206, Ext. 5010, or by
e-mail at mhodgson@pulizer.net
Photo By S. Boone Productions