Butterflies art project raises money for school

Get your nets ready.

Nearly 30 much-largerthan-life butterflies landed in Colorado Springs Saturday, as part of a Colorado Springs Rotary Club project that will raise money for the art program at Queen Palmer Elementary School.

Some of the butterflies are bright and splashy; others have faces or aspens across their wings.

All will be sold this fall.

But for now, they are on display throughout Colorado Springs for the community to enjoy, said Annie De George, one of the Rotary members working on the project. Each butterfly is on a pole 5 to 6 feet tall, with wingspans of up to 3 feet.

The Springs service club got the idea from a sister club in Wisconsin, which did a similar project with decorated butterflies, dragonflies and frogs.

Although the Pikes Peak area has seen similar community art projects, including elk-dotting locations in Teller County, butterflies are something new, De George said. They represent something happy and pleasant, "and who wouldn't want a butterfly in their garden," she said.

Artists received $150 from the Rotary Club to help pay for supplies, and they'll get a percentage of the sale price when the butterflies are auctioned on Oct. 11. Most of the money will be split between the Rotary Club's community service fund and Queen Palmer, which is in Colorado Springs School District 11.

The group wanted to help the students, who tend not to have a lot of cultural opportunities elsewhere. When members of the club visited Queen Palmer and saw a small cart of art supplies that served as the school's art program, they knew they had chosen a school where they could make a difference, De George said.

Queen Palmer would like to be an arts-focused school, Principal Priscilla Barsotti said, but until test scores improve, teachers must focus on basic skills such as reading and writing.

Many of the school's roughly 215 students are considered "at-risk," Barsotti said, meaning families have less money and might move often. The students are often behind in reading and language. Families may not have the money for trips to museums or camps, she said.

Exposing students to the arts is "a way of tapping into their imagination and creativity," Barsotti said, and the exposure also helps with math, science and critical thinking skills.

But the school doesn't have even a part-time art teacher, unlike most D-11 elementary schools, she said.



"I just can't justify that right now," she said.

The students will get an extra dose of art starting in August, thanks to two teachers who have volunteered to teach art on top of their other duties. Barsotti said they were inspired to add to their workload after working with the Rotarians on the butterfly project.

The Rotarians hope to make the project an annual event benefiting other schools.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0394 or shari.griffin@gazette.com