Butterflies Soar in San Diego Schools

By guest author Arlene Keeyes, member of The Butterfly Project’s Education Team (a 2019 update)

This year has seen some new and exciting changes for The Butterfly Project’s Education Team, consisting of Co-Founder and lead teacher, Jan Landau, along with educators Arlene Keeyes, Sonia Fox-Ohlbaum, and Judi Gottschalk. First, we have brought in several new speakers, originating from our Speakers Bureau. Next, we have experienced a significant increase in classroom and other presentations by the Education Team. Lastly, we were filmed by Ron and Karen Cook of Ron Cook Media.

Speakers Bureau

During this last year a Speakers Bureau was established to bring in other Second-Generation Children of Holocaust Survivors to join the Education Team in sharing their family’s personal stories with students in the classroom. This has been a successful addition to our program. We want extend our sincere thanks for a job well done to, Jack Morgenstern, Karen Levenson, Esther Hogue, and Josh Wortman. Their help is much appreciated!

Education Team in the Classroom

It has been a wonderfully productive year! Classroom presentations have increased significantly this past school year, 2018-19. The Ed. Team has gone to thirty-two schools and shared our lessons with one hundred six classes. A total of two hundred ninety-seven kits were used from January through June. An additional 2300 hundred butterflies were painted by La Jolla Country Day School students and staff. Knox Middle School invited us to teach TBP to their entire school! Other groups we made presentations to were: Santee/Lakeside Rotary, American History Theater group, and Congregation Beth Am parents and students. The Education Team partnered in a teacher in-service with the organization Facing History and Ourselves, hosted at Eastlake High School in Chula Vista. Teachers from across all disciplines and high schools in Chula Vista attended, including Chula Vista High School and Hilltop High School, as well as Sweetwater District Office representatives. This training was generously funded by Rose Foundation and more than 1,500 students will be engaged in our programming!

Education Team at Montgomery Middle School

While we presented our personal stories to all 8th grade students at Montgomery Middle School in El Cajon, we were filmed by Ron and Karen Cook of Ron Cook Media. They are employed by various school districts to share the good things happening in their schools. Ron and Karen graciously shared their finished product to promote TBP on Facebook and other media outlets.

Montgomery Middle School – Butterfly Project from East County Style on Vimeo.