The gravel arrived during the last week of September, the first trough arrived a few weeks before, and the deadlines were laid out when school began this August. The idea of a butterfly garden was created two years ago. Its beginnings lie beside the senior lockers near Ms. Encila’s room.
Every year, The Gregory School’s chapter of the Roots & Shoots club, an organization founded by Jane Goodall, decides on new projects to take on. The goal of the club is to bring students together to improve local social and environmental issues. This year, they decided to pick up where Isabel Ferriera, a 2019 Gregory School alumna, left off last year.
Inspired by a Ted Talk that Ms. Encila showed about joy, Isabel painted the rainbow ramada that stands over the foundation of the butterfly garden. Since then, the garden has evolved into an expansion of Isabel’s rainbow ramada.
“We’ve been working on it for two years,” says Ms. Encila. “It’s been a challenge, but more inspiration also came from Mr. Milner when he heard about it.”
Mr. Milner, a highschool English and journalism teacher, is a member of The Gregory School’s class of 2007. Tragically, Lacey Jarrell, who was also a member of his class, died in a car accident the summer before her senior year. She was celebrated as a student with a brilliant mind, mature opinions, and an open personality. The class of 2007 built a memorial for her, which currently sits outside of the theater. When Mr. Milner heard about the butterfly garden, he jumped at the opportunity to merge his idea with Roots & Shoots.
“I felt like our visions and our goals were really closely aligned,” Mr. Milner says about teaming up with Roots & Shoots. “...even though the projects might seem separate initially, they ultimately had the same goal of bringing positive energy and positive aesthetic additions to the campus. I felt like this was a good match because of that.”
He then tells me about the history behind Lacey’s star. “We made a memorial together for her that represented the symbol that we most closely associated with her, which was a green star. She loved green stars. She drew them all over her folders and things like that. And so we tried to make a green star, but it’s just really deteriorated over time. It’s just really ready to have new life injected into it. It’s ready for new energy, new love, new life.”
Mr. Milner and his class are funding a portion of the butterfly garden project to create a professional mosaic in honor of Lacey and her presence on the TGS campus. They don’t know exactly what the mosaic will look like when it is done, but he has asked Lacey’s mother for examples of green stars that Lacey drew. The artist plans using the exact shape that Lacey would have used for her stars.
Katie McColgin, president of Roots & Shoots, is amazed by how this project has grown. “It’s very exciting to see the butterfly garden evolve into something bigger than simply making an area of campus more beautiful,” Katie told me. “Having so many groups of students and faculty become interested in collaborating on the project really reflects The Gregory School spirit of community.”
I specifically remember coming out of the Roots & Shoots meeting with her when Mr. Milner announced his plan of teaming up with us. Katie was thrilled to see how everything connected.
Ms. Encila agrees. “I believe that everything on the planet is connected and I believe that once you put a positive intention out there and open up to it, it gives an opportunity for the intention to grow beyond what one could originally imagine. I think it’s fantastic. It’s a magical connection. It started out as honoring and supporting butterflies and now it’s honoring and supporting people who have gone before us.”
When people visit the garden in the future, Ms. Encila would like them to feel peace, gratitude, connected to the earth, and feel like part of this community. Butterflies are a powerful symbol of rebirth, endurance, hope, change, and life. The butterfly garden will be a beautiful beginning of a great positive flow at school.
“Even if they don’t know the story, they don’t know about her, they don’t know about anyone in our class, even if they don’t know about any of that,” Mr. Milner says, “I just want [people] to look at it and think: ‘that’s the product of love.’”
The butterfly garden is a project that will benefit the Gregory School community for years to come. If you wish to become more involved with the making of the butterfly garden, email Ms. Encila (vencila@gregoryschool.org) or donate cash or checks to The Gregory School with Roots & Shoots in the memo. Cash can be given to Ms. Encila. Roots & Shoots would be grateful for any donations.
Written By Karen Jie (copy editor)