Monarch Meetups
Explore our timeline to learn about our past events, including blogs that provide valuable resources and knowledge shared by our speakers and partners. Please note that recordings of our previous webinars has been moved our new BEAM Webinar Series page for easy access.
Stay updated with our upcoming events by signing up for Monarch Mail and following us on social media!
August 23, 2025
RTR Summer Program
Group B, Week 2
With arguably the most thorough search by committed students, we recorded 22 eggs and 4 butterflies for community science, and spotted various other insects, a true haven for native wildlife!
Students have confirmed that most of their caterpillars are either in J hang or chrysalis, and were updated about tagging protocols in the coming week.
Lastly, we decorated and finalized our poems, all colorful and ready to shine at the Dodge Garden!
August 16, 2025
RTR Summer Program
Group B, Week 1
Starting off Group B strong, we reviewed the monarch life cycle, discussed the interconnection between climate change and biodiversity loss, and recorded 1 butterfly, 15 eggs, and 4 first instar caterpillars—a new record!
At the end of the session, we brainstormed poem ideas, distributed a trio of caterpillars to each student, as well as a mesh cage to prepare for chrysalis formation and shelter in a week 💫
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August 2, 2025
RTR Summer Program
Group A, Week 4 /
Poetry & Pollinators
Garden Workshop
This session, we invited the community to participate in the finale of Group A of the summer program: releasing our monarch butterflies!
We also explored the Dodge Garden to read poems created by summer program students, a project in collaboration with Roots & Reflections, and go on an egg hunt to collect community science data.
To wrap up, we decorated bird feeders to support native birds in students' home yards and the Dodge garden!
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July 26, 2025
RTR Summer Program
Group A, Week 3
Now 14 days into the summer program, students' caterpillars have molted into green chrysalises!
While we wait for the final transformation, we finalized and decorated our poems to add some monarch magic to the ReWild Dodge Garden, and recorded our weekly data observations for the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, with our first 2nd instar caterpillar and a new record of 4 adult butterflies spotted!
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July 24, 2025
Environmental Activism Night: Hopeful Climate Solutions
As last July’s pollinator workshop with Baxter’s Pond Foundation was the first ever Monarchs Matter event, it was a full circle moment to speak at the Engage Long Island climate night at Social Play Haus! ​
Cynthia Zhang from Monarchs Matter spoke on the panel alongside Assemblywoman Rebecca Kassay, Christina Lizzo from Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and Danielle Hopson Begun and Donna Collins-Smith from Shinnecock Kelp Farmers to share our climate stories and solutions.
Special thanks to Kim Keiserman, Juleigh Chin, and Congressman Tom Suozzi for coming to support us, as well as the Engage LI team for organizing such an educational, inspiring, and crafty night with postcard and petition writing to advocate for horseshoe crab protection and offshore wind, and birdhouse decorating and native seed distribution to support native wildlife!
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July 19, 2025
RTR Summer Program
Group A, Week 2
At the start of the session, Lois dropped by to show us her family's monarch book, and eggs and caterpillars from her garden!
We also reviewed the chrysalis stage, which the students will witness in the upcoming week through their butterfly mesh cages. In summary, the caterpillars will first form a J hang, and contract into a green chrysalis, which will digest internally and turn transparent over a week to reveal it's black and orange wings.
For our data collection, students recorded 5 butterfly and 19 egg observations, which will be submitted to the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project!
To wrap it up, we had our poem brainstorming session with Roots & Reflection, exchanging ideas and catching up on our summer plans! We will finalize our poems next week for our poem walk on Saturday, August 2.
July 12, 2025
RTR Summer Program
Group A, Week 1
Group A of the RTR Summer Program is headed off with a great start! We had a jam-packed session, reviewing the causes of the monarch decline—deforestation, pesticide and herbicide use, climate change—and actionable ways to protect monarch butterflies and biodiversity, particularly through planting milkweed and native plants without chemicals and participating in community science projects, like the Monarch Watch Tagging Program and Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP).
After recording 2 monarch butterfly observations and over 15 monarch egg observations for MLMP, students each took home 3 baby monarch caterpillars to raise and witness their metamorphosis ✨
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June 28, 2025
Summer Program Opening Ceremony
Monarchs Matter kicked off the monarch season and the Raise, Tag, and Release (RTR) Summer Program by attending the ReWild Summer Program Opening Ceremony at the beautiful Rewilding America Now Seraphim Farms to introduce the RTR Summer Program and distribute 100 butterfly milkweed plugs for families and partners to plant in their yards, preserves, and school gardens. It was so great meeting everyone, touring the farm with Peter Meleady, and breaking the ice with fun games alongside our new youth interns and volunteers from across the island!
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June 12, 2025
National Geographic
Youth Changemakers Expo
At the 2025 National Geographic Explorer's Festival, Monarchs Matter founder and Slingshot Challenge Top Honors Awardee Cynthia Zhang presented to National Geographic Explorers and staff about her mission, founding story, and future goals.
June 12, 2025
National Geographic Slingshot Challenge Presentation & Awards Ceremony
At the 2025 National Geographic Explorer's Festival, the Monarchs Matter video was presented for the "Protect Nature" category and awarded for the Slingshot Challenge Top Honors Award by Chief Education Officer Deborah R. Grayson and Vice President of Youth Initiatives Lina Gomez.
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November 23, 2024
Thomaston Park Spring
Flower Planting Event
In collaboration with ReWild Long Island and Smiles for the Soul, youth planted 2000 spring flowers at Thomaston Park in the Great Neck Park District. A big shoutout to everyone for accomplishing this incredible feat in just 2 hours through a cold and windy afternoon!
October 13, 2024
Summer Program Commendation Ceremony
ReWild Summer Program and Raise, Tag, and Release (RTR) Summer Program students gave speeches and were awarded by ReWild Long Island Co-Founder and President Raju Rajan, NY Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti, Councilwoman Mariann Dalimonte, NY State Senate Candidate and Baxter's Pond Foundation Co-President Kim Keiserman, NYCT Program Officer Marissa Greenberger, LISS Professional Sarah Schaefer-Brown, and ReWild Long Island Gardens Project Manager Samantha Jo for their environmental stewardship over the summer.​
Students of the top 4 winning RTR Program reflections were also awarded custom-designed Monarchs Matter succulent planters and Certificates of Achievement. The winning and runner-up reflections will be posted on our blog.
September 14, 2024
Metamorphose with Monarchs Webinar with The Monarch Missions
We collaborated with Canada-based nonprofit The Monarch Missions in an international effort to raise awareness of the monarch butterfly decline and to share strategies in supporting monarchs and all native species.
Learn more and watch the video here.
We installed a monarch waystation sign & tagged and released monarch butterflies at the Dodge Garden today! Thank you Raju, Sonia, and Bea for joining us, wrapping up our last Raise, Tag, and Release (RTR) Summer Program session beautifully :)
September 8, 2024
RTR Summer Program
Group C, Week 3
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September 1, 2024
RTR Summer Program
Group C, Week 2
Today at the Science Museum of Long Island (SMLI), we installed a Monarch Waystation sign with SMLI Board trustee Peggy and surveyed milkweed for Monarch Larva Monitoring Project observations!
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August 23, 2024
RTR Summer Program
Group C, Week 1
Today at the ReWild Garden @ Dodge for the first RTR Summer Program Group 3 session, we went over the monarch decline and life cycle, the climate and biodiversity crises, and the importance of native plants and pollinators. After, we collected observation data for MLMP, saw 1 monarch butterfly, and found 5 eggs!
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August 18, 2024
RTR Summer Program
Group B, Week 3
Final Group B RTR Summer Program session at the Science Museum of Long Island today! We tagged and released 10 monarch butterflies and recorded 1 monarch butterfly and 8 eggs for the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP).
A little game of I Spy: Can you spot the 4 monarch butterflies in this photo? Our monarchs loved the Joe Pye Weed at SMLI :)
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August 18, 2024
From Seed to Sanctuary Workshop
In collaboration with Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Nassau and ReWild Long Island, we hosted a community workshop to present about the monarch butterfly decline and promote five rewilding practices that are keys to sustainability and biodiversity. At the end of the workshop, we distributed 50 swamp milkweed plugs and tagged 11 butterflies, which the kids were thrilled to hold and witness the release of these magical creatures.
Discover the speakers' story, advice, and insights on rewilding and monarch conservation in our blog.
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August 11, 2024
RTR Summer Program
Group B, Week 2
Today we had an egg- and butterfly-filled session at the ReWild Garden @ Dodge! We saw/found and recorded 2 monarch butterflies and 17 eggs for the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP). Kathy, ReWild Long Island Board Member and Summer Program adult organizer, also visited us during our milkweed site surveying!
August 5, 2024
ReWild South Fork Summer Program Info Session
Monarchs Matter presented about monarch butterflies and shared RTR Program information with ReWild South Fork Summer Program leaders and students to discuss the possibility of starting a new chapter of Monarchs Matter in Sorth Fork.
View the full presentation here.
August 4, 2024
RTR Summer Program
Group B, Week 1
First RTR Summer Program Group B session at the Science Museum of Long Island today! At the beginning of our session, we discussed the monarch migration and challenges that monarchs face, raising and tagging monarchs, the monarch life cycle, and the importance of growing native plants to support biodiversity. Then, we went to survey the milkweed sites to record milkweed and monarch observation data for the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP). Lastly, we distributed monarchs tote bags, mesh cages, milkweed, and 2 caterpillars to each student just in time before it started pouring!
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July 28, 2024
RTR Summer Program
Group A, Week 3
Today at the ReWild Garden @ Dodge,
we released 5 monarch butterflies, which loved the Joe Pye Weed at Dodge! We also found 2 monarch eggs and many other insects on the milkweed (milkweed beetles, red aphids, ladybugs). We recorded these observations on our Monarch Larva Monitoring Program datasheets. ReWild Long Island Founder and Board President Raju and his family/friends also came to visit and participated in the release!
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July 21, 2024
RTR Summer Program
Group A, Week 2
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During our session at the Science Museum of Long Island, we shared how raising the caterpillars went and talked about the next steps of our monarch raising as most of our caterpillars have turned into chrysalises! Afterwards, we collected data for the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP) that will contribute to scientific research.
In total, we found 4 eggs and 3 first instar caterpillars. We also saw several invasive spotted lanternflies, which the students collaborated on to find and eliminate!
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July 14, 2024
RTR Summer Program
Group A, Week 1
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We had an amazing start to the RTR Summer Program at Dodge! We reviewed the monarch life cycle and decline, the climate and biodiversity crisis, the importance of planting natives, and the objectives of the program. Everyone received 2 monarch caterpillars, a monarchs tote bag, and milkweed leaves for raising. 4 students found/brought monarch eggs home, which will hatch in 1-2 days! We also recorded the number of monarch eggs and caterpillars we found and the milkweed species we observed to collect data for the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP).
July 10, 2024
Monarchs Matter Informational Gathering with Chinese Tai Chi Elderly Group
In Guangzhou, China, we raised awareness of the monarch butterfly decline and biodiversity loss and discussed what individuals can do to help protect the environment. We also distributed custom-designed Monarchs Matter ceramic planters and reusable tote bags to everyone.
July 6, 2024
How to Tag & Track Monarchs for Conservation with Monarch Watch Director Dr. Kristen Baum
Dr. Kristen Baum, Monarch Watch Director and University of Kansas professor, shared with ReWild and RTR Summer Program students how to tag monarchs for the Monarch Watch Tagging Program to help understand the dynamics of the monarch's spectacular 3000-mile fall migration through mark and recapture.​
Learn more and watch the video here.
July 2, 2024
RTR Program Training Session
This in-person session at the ReWild Garden @ Dodge officially kicked off the Monarchs Matter Raise, Tag, and Release (RTR) Summer Program.
Students learned about the importance of monarch butterflies, their decline, life cycle, and habitat. We also reviewed how to observe monarchs on milkweed and the process of raising and tagging them. To finish off, 100 swamp milkweed plugs were distributed to students to take home and plant in their yards.
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June 23, 2024
ReWild Summer Program Introductory Webinar
The webinar introduced to ReWild youth volunteers and interns the Monarchs Matter Raise, Tag, and Release (RTR) Summer Program.
View the webinar slideshow here.
June 1, 2024
Baxter's Pond Foundation Butterfly & Pollinator Workshop
During first in-person workshop, held next to the beautiful Baxter’s Pond, we presented about the importance of native habitats to support monarch butterflies and all of our essential pollinators to 20+ attendees, and participated in the unveiling of the new Monarch Butterfly Mural.
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