Monarch Butterfly Workshop Moves To Perkins Center In Moorestown

MOORESTOWN, NJ — “I had a wonderful time presenting to the children and was so very happy at how excited they were,” said Glenn Curtis of Marlton, following his hands-on monarch butterfly presentation, which took place late in August, during a session of Perkins Art Camp, on the grounds of Perkins Center for the Arts, in Moorestown.

From the start, the children were enthralled. They took a close look at monarch eggs, caterpillars, and butterflies. They picked up caterpillars and watched them crawl over their fingers. They listened attentively as Curtis talked about the monarchs and their dependence on milkweeds, the only plants on which monarch females lay their eggs; about the monarchs’ lives as pollinators of our fields and gardens; and about the long, perilous journey they will soon face as they head south toward their wintering grounds in the Oyamel forests of Mexico.

Curtis had brought several containers, including a large see-through tent, which held two butterflies that the children set free toward the end of the presentation. “They’re going to Mexico!” a child shouted as the last butterfly released flew upward and was last seen above the treetops.

Afterward, the children were given milkweed seeds to take home and plant. The seeds were from the Curtis family garden, the home of about 150 milkweed plants, descendants of a single plant purchased eleven years ago.

It is through their son Sean, then a boy fascinated with insects, now a freshman at Rowan University, that Curtis and his wife, Candy, became activists in support of the endangered monarch butterfly.

The Curtis Family Monarch Butterfly Workshop has been growing in popularity throughout Burlington County. For three consecutive years, going back to 2017, FEP, the Friends Enrichment Program of Moorestown Friends Meeting, hosted a monarch butterfly workshop open to the public and led by Glenn and Sean. With Sean away at college, Glenn is now the sole presenter.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, no in-person activities are currently taking place at the Moorestown Friends meetinghouse. Not to lose the benefit to the community of the annual monarch butterfly workshop, FEP leaders contacted Kahra Buss, executive director of Perkins Center, about the possibility of moving that event from the Friends Meetinghouse to Perkins Center for Arts.

Buss responded enthusiastically and the FEP butterfly workshop has found a new home at Perkins Center for the Arts. Buss and Curtis are now discussing the possibility of a second monarch butterfly workshop on the grounds of Perkins Center for the Arts.

That event would be open to the public and would take place in the coming weeks. No date has yet been set. For more information, call Perkins Center for the Arts at 856-235-6488.

For more information about FEP and its activities, call Monique Begg, FEP chairperson, at 856-235-3963.