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Symbolic Monarchs now
in Mexico
Letter From Estela
Dear Students,
Your Symbolic Monarchs have arrived in Mexico and into the hands of the
children who live near the monarch sanctuaries. My annual visits to
deliver your Ambassador Butterflies are now underway. Each time I
arrive at a school and it is announced to children that butterflies
from the US and Canada have arrived they shout of joy and gather
together to receive their butterflies.
Our children are delighted to receive letters and the little presents
enclosed. They love to try to read sentences in English, dreaming that
some day they will speak English! According to government reforms in
education in México, English will be a mandatory subject in the
mid-term future. Presently, no public school in Mexico teaches
English as a subject.
My visits always begin with a brief message of conservation on the
habitat of monarch butterflies. The monarch’s winter sanctuaries are in
the mountain forests no more than a few kilometers from these
classrooms! At some schools we can see the forests right from the
school playground -- or even monarchs flying by! These children are the
future owners of the land that surrounds the sanctuaries, so teachers
nowadays consider Journey North a very important educational program.
Every year, every season, Journey North gets to new generations of
children who, for the first time, hear about monarchs’ life cycle. They
are always astonished to realize that our local mountains have the
biggest sanctuaries in the world. They brim with pride that monarchs
come from so far away to overwinter in our forests!
After receiving your butterflies and letters, the children respond
enthusiastically, feeling thrilled at the idea of exchanging with
students from the regions in the US and Canada where the monarchs come
from. In their letters they tell about themselves, and about the ways
they can contribute to preserving the monarch’s Oyamel forests.
I am so happy to be your messenger to visit these lovely children in my
hometown and surrounding communities!
Your friend,
Estela Romero
Angangueo, Michoacan, Mexico
See photos of the children with their symbolic monarchs here
On Sept. 29 East students released Monarch butterflies to migrate to
Mexico. See the story at Bluebag Media here
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