Zion festival celebrates butterflies, flowers and bees; ‘This is important for our community'

Chicago Tribune

12 hours ago

Five blocks of Sheridan Road in Zion going north to Shiloh Boulevard were lined with zinnias last weekend before a right turn to the Zion Park District Bandshell, where scores of locally raised monarch butterflies were set free Sunday to migrate 3,000 miles to Mexico.
Walking through the park, people were able to gaze at more zinnias, enter the butterfly tent, learn more about the flying insects and let them land on their arms or noses. Just east of the butterfly tent was a beekeeping display complete with bees and honeycombs.
Zion Township Supervisor Cheri Neal said all of that — as well as two days of food, music and dozens of booths with people offering an assortment of merchandise, health services and more — made up the Zion community's annual late summer festival.
Neal said in 2018 the zinnia was proclaimed Zion's official flower, and in 2021 the city became part of the Monarch City USA program. Thanks to the fact that the Zion-Benton High School athletic teams are known as the Zee-Bees, the festival got its current name.
The butterfly release and children taking a baseball bat to a piñata capped the annual Zinnia and Monarch Festival …& Bees Too! event giving those in the community and beyond an opportunity for a variety of experiences.
'The zinnia is much like the residents in our city,' Neal said, referring to a flower that originated in Mexico. 'It comes in every size and every color, which is what makes our community beautiful too.'
Adorning the city with zinnias started well before the festival. Neal said first a few people volunteered, and then more and more until they lined Sheridan Road, from 27th Street on the south to 22nd Street on the north.
'We want to make Zion the zinnia capital,' she said.
A number of people who raise monarch butterflies, from caterpillars forming cocoons until they emerge as colorful butterflies, brought their winged multicolored insects to the monarch tent at the festival where they were released at the end of the two-day event.
Joining the 78 butterflies in a screened tent were children, parents and grandparents. Luna Allen, 6, was there with her grandmother, Dawn of Waukegan. Allen has raised and rescued monarch butterflies for years.
'This is a good experience for my granddaughter,' Allen said. 'She got to see them come out of their cocoon.'
'It's really beautiful,' added Luna.
Whitney Henry, a volunteer helping with the festival, was letting butterflies perch on people's noses and letting them get close in other ways. She said approximately 1% of the eggs the insects lay hatch into caterpillars, spin cocoons and eventually become butterflies.
'It's really rare,' Henry said. 'This year is such a blessing because we have so many.'
Toward the end of the day Sunday, Neal — she has raised and released monarch butterflies for 25 years — entered the tent as she and others herded the butterflies into netted containers. They brought them into a large open area near the stage.
As they arrived, hundreds of people gathered around them and a string quartet played the 'Butterfly Waltz' as the monarchs were released, flying slowly into the sky and away onto their journey toward their winter home in Mexico.
'I helped to let one go,' Alina Almanza, 5, said. 'It's amazing.'
Madison Manley of Zion brought her three children ranging in age from 18 months to 6 years, to the festival to watch the monarchs. She said she wants them to experience events like this at a young age and start learning about things like butterflies.
'This is important for our community,' Manley said. 'This is about kids helping to replenish the monarchs.'
Not far from the monarch tent, Peggy Williams, a member of the Lake County Beekeeper Association, staffed a booth where there were bees in a visible hive. People were able to watch and learn how they pollinate plants and make honey.
'We want kids to learn about the bees, and adults too,' Williams said.
Midway through Sunday afternoon, a large part of the grassy area in front of the bandstand was cleared as two men and three women dressed in traditional Mexican garb, rode into the area on horses.
'They're beautiful,' Yanitza Lomeli of Waukegan said. 'They are champions at what they do. I like watching them.'
Sunday ended with children breaking a piñata.
Starting with a 5K run Saturday morning, the festival featured a Pottawattamie butterfly dance, a beekeeping class, flower arrangement demonstrations, food eating contests, face painting, balloon artists, dancing, butterfly raising classes and musical performances.