Important butterflies get VIP treatment
By Mary Hadac
Southwest Chicago Post reporter
“Call
it ‘The Monarchs of Mayfield,’” one Garfield Ridge
neighbor chuckled about the
situation in the 5200 block of South Mayfield.
 |
| Jackie Faber |
But
what sounds like the latest BBC miniseries is actually a real-life drama
involving monarch butterflies, important pollinators of plants that are part of
the world’s food supply.
It
started years ago, with Jackie Faber and Alex Moreno taking in monarch
butterfly eggs and caring for them inside their home, away from ants and other
predators.
Back
then, Faber’s son was a student at St. Jane de Chantal School.
“I
brought a bunch of [the eggs and caterpillar hatchlings] to school, and all the
classrooms started raising them” she recalled. “We jut did it, and from there I
kept doing it. I dropped it for a few years, but then we came back to it. Now
that I’m retired, it seems like a full time job.”
The hobby
soon grew beyond their house. The St. Jane Holy Name Society planted four
milkweed plants around the parish grounds. The milkweed plant is where monarch butterflies
lay their eggs. The caterpillars can eat the leaves once they hatch. According
to Moreno, the parish now has around a dozen milkweed plants.
Now,
three other neighbors on their block have taken up this
full time hobby,
including Teri Korolewicz and her husband, Jack.
 |
| Teri and Jack Kororlewicz and their milkweed plants |
“We
started doing it because with me being a Girl Scout leader, I’m always trying
to show the girls the impact they have on the environment,” Teri said. “So with
our two young daughters, we were showing them that if you help these creatures
along, you’re helping the environment.
“There
have been a couple of times that my younger Girl Scouts are preparing for
something else and I’ll be like, ‘Wait a minute. We had a butterfly hatch, so
we have to stay for a little bit so we can watch it dry out…and the girls are
absolutely fascinated with seeing this,” she continued. “And then as they see them
as they walk through the neighborhood, they’re like, ‘I wonder if that’s our
butterfly?’ They love the fact that they’re able to help.”
The
butterflies seem to soak up the attention, Jack added.
 |
| Jack Korolewicz looks at monarch chrysalises |
“Last
year, I basically had a butterfly sitting on my shoulder,” he recalled with a
smile. “For a half hour I was talking to Jackie and my wife, and it just sat
there…didn’t want to fly away. I thought, well, I must be picked for
something.”
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