- Drexel Park in Valdosta features a new display of colorful butterflies as part of The Butterfly Project.
- The project aims to bring beauty back to the community following extensive storm recovery efforts.
- Watch the video to see how local students created unique butterfly designs, fostering creativity and diversity in the community.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Mandi Gills, the creator of the project, saw an opportunity to turn a difficult year into something uplifting.
She reached out to local schools and community groups, asking students to design butterflies—no rules, just creativity.
The result? A forest full of them.
"I've spoken a lot on just seeing the diversity in the group itself. I think one of the best parts of this project is I don't know what this kid looks like. I don't know what they're thinking, I don't know where they come from out of the background. All I know is that they decided this was a good design to put on their butterfly and they want it to be shown, and I love that so much."
For VSU senior Gavin Ponder, the project became personal.
He added a butterfly representing his fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon—only to find that the collection had grown so vast, he couldn’t even locate his own.
"I was like, these are really nice, and then I realized that I'm probably the one that did it digitally because I thought I just figured it was supposed to be digitally, but everybody did theirs like marker and crayon and whatnot."
But beyond the fun of searching for hidden butterflies, Ponder sees something bigger—a way to restore what was lost.
"I think it helps bring like the beauty back to some of the damage that the hurricanes caused."
Gills tells me she plans on adding another Valdosta City School's decoration to the park at a later date. In Valdosta, I’m Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.
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