By: Hettie Basil Lighttower
Yesterday we celebrated the 20th anniversary of West Virginia Monarch Butterfly Day, September 12. Let me tell you how this day came about…..
There once was a girl named Heather Tokas. She had a brother named Andrew who learned to raise monarchs in his 2nd grade classroom. He asked the teacher, Mrs. JoAnn Scott how to do it at home. Andrew quickly learned how to identify milkweed and coerced his big sister Heather out into the field to do the same. Since 1974 both Heather and Andrew most every summer since then reared Monarch butterflies(and other butterflies and moths along the way). But Heather really took to the hobby.
In 2000 she started her own Butterfly Farm business and now everyone knows her as the butterfly lady. In 2003 Governor Wise of WV was attending a business event near her town. As a new business she called the RSVP# to attend. The secretary on the line could not believe her business was REAL butterflies and how exciting it must be. As her imagination took her places, she blurted out, “wouldn’t it be nice to have a butterfly day?!!” Heather, answered, “Oh that would be great!! I’ll have to get that arranged!” You see, Heather already new there were towns in California and also in Mexico that celebrated the arrival of the monarch butterflies’ for overwintering there.
So, she attended the event with the governor, handed him a business card with the words and question of his secretary still ringing in her ear, asked him if she were to accomplish such a thing, as a monarch day…..how would she go about starting it? He graciously replied, “Talk to your local representatives. Good luck! That sounds like a great idea”.
And a very long story short Heather got busy with finding out who the representatives were, how to contact them, and how to convince them to help with it. She also familiarized herself with legislative committees, what they do and who is on them. In February of 2004 she wrote email after email and educated them as to why this special day would be important. The biggest leverage point was: “We claim the monarch as our state butterfly and proudly recognize it, however, what are we doing to help it? In the last decade, which was 1990-2000, they have been nearly wiped out by unseasonal weather of freezing temperatures and freezing rain in their overwintering grounds in Mexico. They have died by the millions because they cannot survive these conditions. There have been two of these extreme occurrences in the last 10 years.”
Through this connection with committees and law makers, Heather got invited to present at the Wildlife Diversity Day at the state capitol during legislative session. And by then she had convinced seven delegates and five senators to sponsor her request. It was being submitted as a resolution which is similar to a bill but still recognized as legislation. She was told that only ONE was required to sponsor it for consideration. She had 12 and from both sides of the law. The rest is history as they say…..
But an exciting thing happened at Wildlife Diversity Day. It was February 26, 2004 her maternal grandfather’s birthday subsequently, and it was lunch time at the capitol. The lawmakers make their way around the rotunda and look at all the big lobbyist displays, Heather was the ONLY small business in attendance; to see what is exhibited. Heather spots the governor doing the same. She called out “Hello Governor Wise!” He said to his body guards….. one moment and made a bee-line for her table. Shaking her hand he said, “I was reading about you in the paper this morning, I think your day is going to go through! Congratulations! You did a good job.”
The resolution went through officially on March 12th 2004 as House Concurrent Resolution 28 to be observed on September 12 of every year in West Virginia. It has been an active morsel of law for the last 20 years as a day for reflection of our state butterfly the MONARCH. It is a day to be used as a vehicle for teaching the conservation and respect for the amazing journey the monarch takes over 2000 miles long to a special mountain in Mexico. It is a day to learn its life cycle and ponder ways to keep it from going extinct. It is a day to spend a worthwhile activity with family, especially grandparents since Grandparents Day is in the same calendar vicinity. And how appropriate is that when Heather’s first time to display at the capitol was on her grandfather’s birthday.
Originally, September 9 was the selected day because it was just after the school year begins and teachers can use the day in their curriculum and early enough that the monarchs have not migrated south and left West Virginia yet, whereas, their life cycle can be observed in full, beginning September 9. And then she thought….. oh….. what the heck, it’s only three more days until my birthday. Might as well make it a birthday present to myself….. the 12th IT IS!!!
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