I borrowed some money to move a refugee project forward when the pandemic hit and still need to pay it back. The funds will go towards settling a family in Toronto. If you want details on this family, who must remain anonymous due to threats to their lives, pls message me here for information.

Hiding their identities made the fundraising a LOT harder than it would have been otherwise because they are charming AF and have three breathtakingly adorable children. But this is where we are at today.

I owe $3,000 to a wonderful individual and it's time to pay the piper. BUY THIS BOOK written and illustrated by my daughter when she was seven years old for $25 and I'll send you a downloadable ebook. For another $55 you can receive a monarch chrysalis to hatch and release, which I will ship overnight to you. (I think the cost of this is around $20, which I have factored into the cost. This means a donation of $60 and is probably only doable in Ontario or Canada).

Here's the intro to the book:

Dear Butterfly Fan:

Our family has taken up the hobby of raising monarch butterflies. It’s a way to connect with nature and learn about science and bugs. And we have read that it’s also a way of helping Monarch populations, as their numbers are declining and they are vulnerable in the wild.

Another thing that we spend our time on is helping bring refugees to Canada through the Canadian Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program, through Walk Like a Refugee and Northern Lights Canada. This involves a lot of fundraising, so we thought we would create a book on monarch raising and sell downloads in exchange for donations of $35. You can learn about our efforts, where your donations go, and who we are currently working to sponsor at walklikearefugee.org [THIS CURRENTLY NEEDS TO BE UPDATED. NOT GONNA LIE).

I think there is a parallel to be drawn between these beautiful, at risk, creatures, who may travel more than 4,000 km on their annual migration to Mexico,* and the world’s more than 80 million displaced and at risk people, forced to travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres to safety. One of the first refugees I ever met told me that he walked from Eritrea to Sudan, a distance of about 1,000 km, to escape violence. I have since met people who have traveled thousands of km by boat, by car, by plane, and on foot. The common theme is that they keep moving until they are safe. The butterfly too will die if it doesn’t find a warm place for the winter. And its journey is a perilous and incredible one.

This guide is illustrated and dictated by Kismet Jager, who is seven years old. David Jager did the physical writing of the words. Elizabeth Bromstein, as Creative Director, did pretty much nothing except help with a few illustrations and “supervise” until Kismet yelled “Please stop! I can’t work with you staring over my shoulder!”

Raising Monarchs is by no means a comprehensive manual. It is written by a seven year old. There is a lot of missing information. We don’t claim to be experts, but our track record from egg to butterfly is excellent. We have only lost three caterpillar friends this summer (2020), out of dozens. We forgot to mention, for example, that you should clean out the frass (poop) out of the enclosures daily. But there are lots of resources on the internet to help you fill in the gaps. For example, we get a lot of tips from Rich Lund, whose videos on raising monarchs can be found on his YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/MrLundScience. And, if you just type in “raising monarchs” you’ll find a bunch more stuff. If you start raising monarchs, I hope you enjoy it. If you don’t, I hope you enjoy this book anyway.

Thank you for purchasing our book.

Elizabeth Bromstein

Walk Like a Refugee

*Ontario monarchs overwinter in Mexico. Other monarchs may go to other places, like Southern California.