A crowd of roughly fifty people of all ages braved the brisk winds Friday in a heartening display to attend the most recent Winkler Senior Centre excursion – the largest turnout to date – to learn about Monarch Butterflies.
This years’ Intergenerational Nature Discovery Excursions Project aimed to bring youth and elders together to learn and interact with the nature around them.
Denise Enns - Resource Coordinator at the Senior Center spoke a bit on the planning process that brough the events together. “We thought nature had to be part of it. So, we thought Discovery Nature Sanctuary would be a great place to do that.”
She went on to discuss the success of the final event of the year. “This is the biggest group we've had. So, we think that the monarch butterflies really drew people in because a lot of people are interested in that topic.”
Mary Wall – an avid promoter of butterfly conservation provided an in-depth look into the life cycle of the Monarch Butterly, as well as anecdotes about Catilina Trail and Kenneth Brugger’s discovery of the butterfly’s overwintering site in Mexico. “As they were hiking 10,000ft [about 3 km] in the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt...they suddenly saw hundreds of millions of Monarchs... These monarchs just covered the trees... It’s spectacular.”
One of the attendees, Carolyne Wiebe said her family had attended all three excursions, “My daughter really loves the elderly, and we also enjoy the outdoors. What’s not to like?” She noted there would be a strong possibility of them returning if the excursions continued next year.
The way that the Intergenerational Nature Discover Excursions Project uses mutual curiosity to develop connections between generations is something that the Senior Center would like to look at again, but Enns mentions that it is funding dependent. “This [project] is specifically for 2024, but if funding is available next year, we’ll definitely look at it again.”
Click below to hear the full interviews with Denise Enns, and Carolyne Wiebe.
