Television News Coverage - 2008

 

Newspaper article - 2001

Nora Donston breeds and provides live butterflies for weddings, birthday parties and other special events.

"As far as I know, this is the only business that breeds living creatures specifically to set them free."
From time immemorial, the butterfly has been celebrated by poets, studied by biologists, painted by artists and prized by collectors.
Observing its metamorphosis from tiny egg to fluttering kaleidoscope fascinates children and remains as one of the
more compelling examples of the cycles of life unfolding,
literally, before our very eyes.
For Nora Donston, the butterfly was a prayer answered.  "My husband was seriously ill, and I was looking for something to do out of my home.  I always loved weddings, and when I came across the idea of the butterfly business it seemed to fit because the butterfly is a symbol of new beginnings. It as quite literally the answer to my prayers."
Donston named her company A Butterfly Affaire and launched it in Fallbrook in 2000.  After the death of her husband from congestive heart failure in 2003, she moved her home and office to Hemet.

A visitor to Donston's garden is immediately impressed by its tranquility. All outside sounds seem somehow hushed. Two finely screened flight houses stand side-by-side, lazily "guarded" by a rag doll cat named Kitty. Inside, several Monarchs flutter about while others rest on assorted blooming plants. Beneath them, chrysalides hang suspended in precise rows in small "emergence cages." Amazingly uniform in size, these exquisite, jewel-like pupae look like pieces of pale sculpted jade crowned in gold leaf - the crown being the reason for the name "monarch."
Donston says she talks to her butterflies and says the Monarch is "very friendly." Although the monarch is the most popular, she also provides other species, including gulf fritillaries and two species of painted ladies.
A male monarch butterfly spreads its wings as it rests on blossoms in the fight house of Donston's garden.  Shipped overnight in an insulated container with a cold pack, Donston's butterflies are individually packed in boxes designed to keep them calm and healthy until they're released.
She provides butterflies nation-wide for all sorts of events, including weddings, funerals, anniversaries - even a birthday party for actor Pierce Brosnan.
Pauline Dinkel-Manietta of Hemet had Donston supply 500 butterflies for her June wedding last year in Idyllwild.
"At the end of the song 'Wind Beneath My Sails' when it says 'fly, fly, fly,' we released them all at once," Dinkel-Manietta said. "People were absolutely awe-struck, and they're still
talking about it almost a year later."

In addition to raising butterflies, Donston provides caterpillars for exhibits at Sea World - San Diego and makes 30-minute educational presentations at elementary schools. When she talks to schoolchildren, she brings with her all stages of the metamorphosis, from the tiny eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves, to the caterpillar, to the chrysalis, to the butterfly itself.
"Kids are fascinated by the process of metamorphosis, especially when they find out that a caterpillar grows to 2,000 times its original size," she said. "When I tell them that
they'd have to eat enough pizza to grow as tall as a 20-story building to do the same thing -
then they understand how amazing it really is."
Donston says she tells children that if they're kind, they will grow like the butterfly chrysalis and be transformed into a beautiful being.
Currently, nine species can be shipped between states, but can be released only in states in which they are indigenous. Adults born in the spring and summer usually live from
four to six weeks, but the last generation of the year can live between six and nine months and are the ones that migrate.

Donston will provide 1,000 butterflies for a spring promotion at the Lake Elsinore Outlet Mall in May. The mall is busily installing flowers that attract butterflies, and the butterflies
themselves will begin arriving in bunches at the mall's flight house April 19, said the mall's public relations director, Louis Desmond. Because they are most active in hot weather,
plans are to release them about 3 p.m. May 8. Their release is environmentally safe and helps in the restoration of the butterfly population in California, Donston said. "It's more ecologically sound than releasing balloons into the atmosphere or throwing rice at weddings," she said.
But more important than its environmental aspects, perhaps, is that she considers her calling a spiritual experience.
"This is such a tranquil business and much more fulfilling even than I thought it would be.  Popularity of butterflies increases awareness about nature." she said. "As far as I know, it's the only business that breeds living creatures
specifically to set them free. And that gives me a warm feeling."

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http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2001/04/22/export8087.txt

 

A Butterfly Affaire • 250 D South Lyon Avenue • Hemet, CA 92543 • 1-888-282-7281