Facebook has been very kind to Happy Tonics. Here is where we can post our Cause – Sanctuary for the Monarch Butterfly and why we need to raise money. We all work for free – that is the officers, board, members and volunteers. It takes funds to implement a native habitat on an old railroad bed that was full of cement and possible chemicals from earlier days.
I was told by the elder and Honorable Charles Lutz, former Mayor of Shell Lake, that during the Great Depression hobos would ride the train into Shell Lake and set up camp. He remembers the days when he saw their cooking fires and make shift camps along the lakeside near the railroad tracks. No one in Shell Lake was mean to them. The little community understood the plight of their fellow suffering human beings and left them alone.
I can’t even imagine how degraded the soil was when we first attempted to do something about a mowed barren strip of land. We still need to put up a display case for donors (each with donations of $100 or more) and redo the wood chip path with some recycled materials that will keep the habitat from growing right into the path. It is too hard for us 60 something year olds to be on our hands and knees pulling weeds. We also need a tool shed for hand mower and other equipment.
This is a perfect opportunity to raise the banner and promote our cause at http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/142151
Be generous folks. We are all volunteers and it takes funding to build a 1/2 acre habitat with its split rail fence, pergola, memory benches and metal and cement sculpture art. The annual maintenance in season runs from April – October and is labor intensive.
The TV crews were at the Monarch Butterfly Habitat this past 4th of July weekend filming the habitat. The Restored Native Remnant Tallgrass Prairie dedicated as a Monarch Butterfly Habitat is going to be featured on public television starting in March 2011 on Discover Wisconsin.
Thank you insectamonarca friends where ever you are.
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