Wow!  We are more than 10% of the way toward our goal!  Thank you to all who have already supported us as we ramp up toward our MD Day Butterfly presence on campus.

And, thanks to our “Checkerspot Butterfly team”, we are now more approachable than ever!

For the next few weeks, our team will be located at a table at the UMD Farmer’s market on Wednesday afternoons from 11-3 (rain or shine). 

So while you are out shopping for local produce, lunch and baked goods, please swing by our booth and try your wits against our butterfly trivia wheel!

We will be able to take donations at the table, answer any questions and discuss why this remarkable insect warrants everyone’s attention.  So much attention, in fact, that we were just featured in the UMD Diamondback:

http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/article_1be34db2-e17f-11e4-a607-a3597a11af6e.html

Come join us on Wednesdays!  We'd love to see you and thank you again!

Thank you for all the generous support you have given us!  We are now greater than 33% funded!  We are learning that Butterfly Supporters come from all backgrounds and interests and that many share our passion. We have two events coming up that we are very excited about:

The first event is MD Day (http://marylandday.umd.edu/), where we will be able to showcase the Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly and the White Turtlehead and educate our visitors of the importance of this state insect and host plant.  We will have a trivia wheel, coloring pages of the Checkerspot life cycle, butterfly games, and the White Turtlehead plants as our giveaway so that we can help spread this native host plant and extend the Checkerspot’s habitat and range in Maryland. Please do stop by and visit us and take home a turtlehead.

We are excited to have representatives from the Black Hills Nature Center (http://www.montgomeryparks.org/nature_centers/blackhill/) arriving next week to help our group learn more about hand rearing these amazing butterflies as we get ready to plant the White Turtlehead in enclosures later this summer. They have successfully done this in Montgomery County and we are thrilled to have their support.

For those of you who may have missed the Op-ed article in the Washington Post, please do read about why we should be supporting and working with our locally endangered butterflies and host plants:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-monarch-butterfly-doesnt-need-so-much-help/2015/02/20/cd936d60-b887-11e4-a200-c008a01a6692_story.html

Thank you for the wonderful turnout on MD Day!  We have now raised 85% of our funds and we enjoyed meeting many of you to answer questions and to explain the impact of this project.  We have found so many of you that are passionate about these unique insects and the networking you have all provided to get this LAUNCH campaign moving has been inspiring.

Please help us make that last 15%!  We only need a little bit less than $800 to make the final goal!

Thank you to Jonathan Wilson from NPR who took the time to interview several of our Checkerspot Pollinaterps team last week regarding this effort.  Listen or read the interview here:

http://wamu.org/news/15/04/23/baltimore_checkerspot

Many thanks to all the donors, groups and interested and involved butterfly supporters we have had contact us over the last month!

It has been a joy to reach out to alum, gardening groups, naturalists, students, activists, faculty and other pollinator friendly advocates.  We are excited to begin this project and get the White Turtleheads planted soon.

We had a great meeting with the Black Hills Nature Center last week and now have an expert on butterfly population dynamics join our group!  We are in for an exciting summer.

We are 93% funded so we only need a little push to get us to the finish line by this Friday.  Please reach out to your friends and family and help us make our $5,000 goal. Thank you again for all the wonderful support you have already given us!