The beautiful butterfly tree was a delight for many children at Festival of Trees!
If you were at Festival of Trees, you saw the beautiful Monarch Butterfly Tree that was a real treat for adults and kids alike. There was a fun story behind that wonderful tree told here by Janet Capozzola:
“In July the Senior Center had been open for an entire month after being shut down from the Corna Virus in July 2021. We were excited to be allowed to have a float in the Lion's Club Fourth of July parade. We decided butterflies would be a great representation of how we all felt coming out of isolation. We named our float, "We Have Emerged". We had all parts of the stages of the butterfly, Kathy Stram marched in the parade as a caterpillar. We had a section of the float with a tree with chrysalis hanging in it. The seniors wore beautiful wings and loved riding on the float flapping their wings sitting under the huge Monach butterfly. We had lots of flowers for the butterflies to nibble on. We won a trophy for first place in the parade.
After the parade we moved the butterfly into our Senior Center where it decorated the great room and reminded everyone how great it was to have emerged from isolation.
In October we decided the butterfly needed to move on to spread it's wings and bring joy to others. A couple of seniors worked to attached the Monach's wings to a black Christmas tree and strung it with white lights and added the antennas. They made a "tree skirt" with the flowers and added some more smaller butterflies and was delighted to donate it to the Festival of Trees to raise money for Ann's place and move onto a new home. It received a lot of attention at the Festival because it was so big and unusual.
I was shocked when my daughter's boyfriend won the butterfly tree with just one ticket he placed in the tube. He decided to donate the tree to "The Monach in Southbury”, a Senior Living Facility where it has found a new home in the facility's main room.”
Janet Capozzola, Program Coordinator
New Fairfield Senior Center