Cornerstones of Science is pleased to be participating in this annual program run through Journey North. In this program, students all across the United States learn about monarch butterflies and their yearly migration to overwintering grounds in Mexico. Then the students make and decorate "symbolic" paper monarchs to send to Mexican school children for overwintering. Students in and around the monarch sanctuaries keep and protect them during the winter and, come spring, send them north again for their return trip.

Here at Curtis Memorial Library we reared and released 29 monarch butterflies this summer, with the hope that most will reach Mexico to overwinter. The monarch display and related Cornerstones of Science programs were a big hit as always, drawing in young and old alike. Children were encouraged to decorate a paper monarch for the Symbolic Migration during the weeks of tagging and releasing, and we amassed an impressive group of colorful butterflies to send to Mexico. They arrived in Mexico and are staying with the children of the Vincent Guerrero Primary School in Ocampo, Michoacan, Mexico. You can visit Journey North's website at http://www.learner.org/jnorth/sm/index.html  to learn more. We will be posting information about where our paper monarchs end up in the spring. Stay tuned!