2003 United W ay of Oakville Campaign OUR GOAL *3.456 m illion United Way Forrmn into:84S-S571 Editor: Wilma Blokhuis Phone: 905-845-3824 (ext. 250) Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: blokhuis@haltonsearch.coni \ \ I I >M S I >.\Y. ( K I ( > 1 '.I I < _>< t. _N M> . » · I '<1^( l i t By Wilma Blokhuis O AKVILLE BEA VER S TA F F FOCUS ON OAKVILLE FOURTH LINE AUTO G O O a fiE A R For H i Your Ca r ' s Needs Drive Clean Emission Testing Government Safety Inspection Tune-Ups · Brakes · Exhaust · Cooing Systems CAA Approved Shop v _______________________ 559 Speers Road (90S) 842-3001 A splash of blue water rises up from a wave to form a butterfly. It symbolizes optimism and hope, and the freedom of Bronte Butterfly takes flight flight. This is the new logo for the Bronte Butterfly Foundation. It was designed for its new Web site, www.butterflys.ca. and its new $2 million fundraising campaign towards completing Oakville's $6 million Butterfly Park and Winter Skateway at Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park. The 3.5-acre project will take up the west section of the park, the last undeveloped lakefront site in Oakville. The dark blue logo against a white background symbolizes not only the butterfly, but also the waterfront and the skateway. "We will have the world's first butterfly park and winter skateway," said an enthusiastic Susan Sheppard, Executive Director of the Bronte Butterfly Foundation. "In the summer it will be a butterfly garden with interactive learning areas for children, and in the winter, it will be a skate way." Sheppard said the skateway is scheduled to open in 2005 with the butterfly garden opening later that same year with a live butter fly release. "We need at least $2 million to finish the park," said Sheppard. "We've already received $3.5 million in cash, goods and services." The park project does not receive any gov ernment funding. The most expensive part of the project is the infrastructure for the waterway that will trans form into the winter skaleway, said Sheppard. This is expected to cost about $1.2 million. "It will be expensive because it's to be built on landfill" landfill was used to develop Bronte Heritage Waterfront Park. "Plus, we'll need filters to keep the water clean and a pump to keep it moving. "This infrastructure must be done before the pathways and landscaping can be completed." To create the project's new identity and Web site, four vol unteers were recruited. Louise Brownlee, who was in the corpo- T he conceptual m a ste r plan o f the B ronte Butterfly P a rk and W inter Skalew ay at B ronte H eritage W aterfront P a rk was created by M arius F. M. de B ruyn of A ESTH ETIC S+D ESIG N . will be able to use some of the has recently been completed. rate communications internship through the use of artificial ice program at Sheridan Institute of is to have the skateway open gardens to create an ever-chang- The cedar gazebo donated by the ing look. "We would like to have D'Orazio Group of Companies Technology and Advanced from December to March. Completion o f the Bronte an outdoor artist and sculpture and Custom Cupola and Steeple Learning, was the first to arrive garden." Co., erected last spring, received Butterfly last April on It will also include the Halton a concrete floor earlier this Park and a five-week Veterans Square, "a tranquil spot month to complete this structure. W i n t e r internship to in the park to recognized our vets The gazebo, plus new signage at S kate way work on the will, howev .:. and yet a happy place where the park, came to about $ 100,000 new cam er, not mean you can hear kids' laughter. The in donated goods and services. paign. She The butterfly park was the end of sadness that the wars have stayed with* the Bronte brought upon the world can be designed by landscape architect the founda transformed (into happiness), but Marius F. M. de Bruyn of AES Butterfly tion as a vol they must never be forgotten." THETICS+DESIGN. Foundation. unteer and The mandate of the Bronte "We will Both the Oakville and Bronte devoted her carry on in Legions will be involved in cre Butterfly Foundation is to create time to rede a people-friendly garden park p artn ersh ip ating this square. veloping its The first part of the project containing wildflowers, while at with the four-yearTown of old Web Oakville," site. She Sheppard also recruit explained, ed Andrea a d d i n g Naim, an artist who Oakville created the new logo, graphic Parks and Recreation will main artist Teresa Thompson of Abbey tain the park. "The foundation Graphics as Web site designer, will continue to fundraise to sus and John Griffiths of SJ Software tain the park and its interactive Applications as the technical learning environment for chil dren." she added. support provider. . "All of the plants will be iden The Butterfly Park and Winter Skateway, once complet tified and information about but ed, will be open year round to the terflies will be available." University students and artists public at no charge. The goal - the same time attract native but terflies back to this area. It has already realized the return of many species of butter flies thanks the cultivation of native plants at 10 locations, including Shell Park, within a five-kilometre radius of the Butterfly Park and Winter Skateway. "Our research shows that there are 62 species of Canadian butterflies native to Oakville and Halton. but the actual number had been in decline." In 1999. only one species was prominent, the Cabbage White. However, with the Town of Oakville, the Bronte Village BIA (Business Improvement Areas), and schools embracing the con cept through the cultivation of native plants, 22 different species have returned to this area, according to a study completed last year, said Sheppard. "In three years, w e've increased, by 21, the number of native species of butterflies in this area." Thanks to urban sprawl, "the natural wetlands for butterflies are gone. For example, the Monarch needs milkweed to lay its eggs." Work towards building this project began in 1999 and the Bronte Butterfly Foundation became a charitable organization three years ago. The Bronte Village BIA originally initiated the butterfly garden project. "It takes between five and seven years to realize a project of this size, and one of the first things we had to do was establish our charitable status," said Sheppard. "Next, we had to build relationships with the Town and Halton Region, local groups and businesses. "It's a huge, huge project." Sheppard concluded. & Winter Skateway O a k v i l le Nick Perry · Special to the Beaver Newly-elected L iberal M PP fo r O akville, Kevin Flynn, and his wife, J a n Flynn, enjoyed S a tu rd a y 's th ird annual M onarch Ball at the H a rb o u r B anquet a n d C onference C entre. The event raised funds for the B ronte B utterfly F oundation. It was attended by 160 people. All you need to Curl. Is Now OAKVILLE TOWN CENTRE I 905-338-9210