Bellies for Butterflies Fundraiser

The East Providence/Seekonk Rotary Club will hold its “Bellies for Butterflies” fundraising event to raise money to purchase wildflower seeds for the community to plant and save the local butterfly habitat. 

“Bellies for Butterflies” will be held from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm on Tuesday, April 14, 2026 at the Cape Verdean Progressive Center, 329 Grosvenor Avenue in East Providence. Tickets are $25 pp and a cash bar is available. The event will feature performances by local professional and semi-professional dancers from the community. 

Each year, the Rotary Club purchases high-quality wildflower seeds in bulk, to package them into envelopes to pass out to parade-goers at the Riverside Memorial Day Parade on May 25, 2026. A seed-packing event will take place at Raymour & Flanigan Furniture and Mattress Store at 100 Highland Avenue in Seekonk on April 30 from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Volunteers are welcome to attend the BYOB event and complimentary pizza and dessert will be served. 

“We are proud to do our part to support Operation: Pollination, a global environmental initiative to help save monarch butterflies and other important plant pollinator species right in our own backyards,” states Betty Galligan, a past president of the East Providence/Seekonk Rotary Club and belly dancer who created the parade event for her Club in 2021. “Each Memorial Day, our colorful parade contingent grows as we now have more volunteers helping to pass out the seed packets dressed as butterflies, bumble bees and lady bugs. All are welcome to join us to ride or walk along, in costume or not. Although I’d love to see a few batman costumes this year!” 

According to Galligan, seventy-five percent of the world’s plant species are dependent on pollinators, such as the monarch butterfly, to survive. Without pollinators, 30 percent of food in grocery stores would disappear. 

Each winter, colonies of monarch butterflies gather annually in Mexico and fly to the southern U.S. to lay their eggs on milkweed plants. Their offspring then flies as far north as Canada to lay their own eggs. After a third generation of butterflies hatches at the end of summer, a fourth “super” generation heads back to Mexico – typically a 6,000-mile round trip journey and the longest known migration of any insect species. Data demonstrates that western U.S. monarchs have undergone a significant decline estimated at more than 95% since the 1980s. 

The public is encouraged to plant wildflower seeds in their own backyards and garden spaces to attract butterflies. “Everywhere along their migration route, butterflies need a habitat to survive. If we can improve the habitat in our own community, we can be part of the solution,” states Galligan, whose late mother, a butterfly enthusiast, inspired the project. “Native plants provide nectar that nourishes the butterflies as well as other pollinators such as bumblebees, bats and moths.” 

To purchase tickets to “Bellies for Butterflies,” and for more information about The Rotary Club of East Providence/Seekonk, visit: www.epseekonkrotary.org.