AROUND TOWN: Butterflies raise $42,000 for projects, school

The butterflies are free - with just due to Charles Dickens - and they're at home in Colorado Springs.

All summer, 30 large handpainted butterfly sculptures created by local artists were spotted here and there on lawns and medians and near businesses around the area. On Oct. 11 they were gathered at Moose Lodge at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to be claimed by permanent owners.

The zoo seemed the perfect setting, said CEO Bob Chastain, because of the need for butterfly conservation.

The "Butterflies & Friends" auction was a colorful yearlong project of the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs and is planned as an annual event.

By evening's end, celebrants, wearing blinking LED buttons (some turned into earrings by the fellows) and glow-stick headbands and necklaces, had raised $42,000. Half will go to Queen Palmer Elementary School to establish an art program and hire a part-time art teacher, replacing the current four art days each school year. The other half goes to the Rotarians' international and local community projects.

A contingent from Queen Palmer, led by principal Priscilla Barsotti, cheered when auctioneers Kevin Patterson and Jesse Kurtz put their favorite butterfly on the auction block. "The Queen Palmer Butterfly" by Pegi Ballenger was a queen butterfly to which she had added Queen Palmer's face.

Teacher Terry Hekkers, whose number was also drawn during the raffle for a Luisa Graff watch, successfully bid with money raised by the school's PTA, teachers and supporters and the butterfly will be on display in front of the school, along with "Children Need Art" by Cindy Morse, donated by an auction patron.

Judged "Best Artistic Expression" was "Butterfly Eyes" by Juanita Canzoneri. "Best Artistic Expression - People's Choice" went to artist LeRad Nilles for "Danaus Plexippus."

Other artists who had created butterflies were Sally Ann Wilson, Mia and Gloria Lynch, Carole Reece, Bethany Tindell, Dawn Yengich, Cass Mulane, Antonia Chastain, Sally Ann Wilson, Collette Brooks, Carol Falls, Margaret Zimbrick, Kenneth Pederson, Jean Houghton, Dale Pittock and Linda Shelley, DeLane Bredvik, Peggy Colgate, Marlena Whitt, Ruth Burink, Evette Goldstein, Kim Polomka, Karen Winfield and Don Green.

Arthritis Foundation

The annual Jewels of the Vine Wine Tasting Sept. 27, attended by 300 people, raised more than $68,000 for the Arthritis Foundation Rocky Mountain Chapter. It will be used for research, public health and public policy.

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Send information about nonprofit events and fundraisers to linda.navarro@gazette.com.