Kids become butterfly heroes—saving the monarch migration, one wingbeat at a time!
Each year at Vacation Bible School, we choose a non-profit to learn about and support through acts of service. In 2025 VBS Kids were on a mission for monarch butterflies!
2025’s VBS Theme was Road Trip: On the Go with God. And if there’s one species who knows something about travel, it’s the monarch butterfly who are known for their spectacular, multi-generational, transcontinental migration from summer breeding grounds in North America to their winter homes in Mexico and California.
At VBS In the Park, we learned about one way we can live out our call to care for God’s creation – by helping Monarch butterflies on their journey.
With the help of a non-profit organization called Monarch Joint Venture, we set a goal to raise enough money to plant an entire acre of milkweed along the monarch’s migration routes. To do this, we needed to pull together $500. Our kids really connected with this Monarch mission! Throughout the week and through some lemonade stands and doing extra chores around the house, along with the support of the congregation, the group brought in just over $1,000!
About Monarch Joint Venture
Monarch Joint Venture works to develop habitat along the Central Flyway—supporting the eastern monarch population across the Midwest and Great Plains. Ohio is one of their key priority states. Their efforts support every stage of habitat restoration—from site preparation, native seed selection to long-term land management.
They’re collaborating in northeast Ohio with Western Reserve Land Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, and Portage Park District to restore 180 acres of former farmland and mined land into prairie pollinator habitat in Shalersville Township, Portage County. Part of a larger 550-acre conservation effort on a reclaimed sand and gravel quarry, the property—currently owned by the Land Conservancy—will be transferred to Portage Park District later this year and managed as a public park.
The Portage Meadows Preserve project includes removing 65 acres of invasive species, primarily Autumn olive, and planting native warm-season grasses and wildflowers to support pollinators (like monarchs), wildlife, water quality, and soil health. Preserves are properties that are not yet developed and open as parks, and often have temporary names. Portage Meadows is situated in Shalersville on over 500 acres.
How Does Milkweed Help Monarch Butterflies?
When kids raise money for milkweed, an essential piece of monarch habitat, they’re creating safe, healthy places where butterflies can grow, eat, and thrive. Their support helps plant milkweed—the only food monarch caterpillars can eat—and lots of nectar-rich flowers for adults. That means more caterpillars and more monarchs in the skies, creating more chances to see them flutter through gardens and schoolyards! They are also helping protect nature and learning to care for it. In short, kids become butterfly heroes—saving the monarch migration, one wingbeat at a time.
Learn more
- Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative
- Milkweed and Monarchs
- Growing Milkweed in Ohio for Monarchs
- Support Monarch Butterflies by Collecting Milkweed Seeds (in the fall)
- Monarch Joint Venture Resources
For Dana
One of the last emails our VBS Director received from our Youth Director, Dana Schwendeman, was a suggestion that our VBS Mission should benefit Monarch Butterflies, the quintessential road trippers.
Dana loved butterflies. In Christianity, the butterfly is a powerful symbol of resurrection and transformation, as well as the spiritual journey each of us take. Dana was called to walk alongside others and remind them that they are dearly known and loved by a God who calls them by name. Dana created safe spaces to grow with God and one another.
In Dana’s honor, let’s notice the butterflies all around us. Let’s be intentional in seeking moments of awe, intentional in creating welcome, purposeful in finding ways to care for God’s creation, and deliberate in finding ways to care for one another while we are here on this earth. Let’s remember the best things about Dana by sharing her wondrousness going onwards. There is comfort in that.
Other Determined Service at VBS 2025
New this year was a whole component on Determined Service. The kids did other important mission work throughout the week – packing canned goods, toiletry kits, and diapers & wipes, with the older kids delivering these kits to Trials for Hope in Cleveland! 10% of the monies families paid to attend VBS was tithed to purchase these items.
These projects are beautiful examples of ways we can share God’s love with all of creation!