 Oh, I'm Jay Fiedel. This is Community Matters on Think Tech. It's a beautiful day today in Honolulu. It's one of those exquisite perfect days. And it makes you think of nature and all the pretty things that are around us. And one of them, of course, is butterflies. So that's why we're doing a butterfly show. Chocho-san in Japanese, right? Anyway, we have somebody who is very heavily invested in butterflies. And that is a legal administrator who happens to be here in the same building with us downtown Honolulu. Her name is Darlene McDowell. Lou McDowell. I get that right? Yeah, that's right. Darlene, welcome to the show. We are so interested in finding out what you do and why you do butterflies among, you know, beyond in addition to everything else you do. So let's talk about butterflies. What do you do with butterflies? So I consider myself a butterfly rancher instead of a breeder because the butterflies fly in and out of my garden all day long and they eat and they lay eggs. I gather up the caterpillars. I shelter them until they become butterflies. And then they go to weddings and funerals and parties and just, you know, create joy for other people. They also are released in my garden. So that is the business of raising butterflies. You raise butterflies. They are babies. They are my babies. Give them names? No names. No names. I cannot keep track of which one is which. But, you know, there are so many predators in Hawaii that in nature less than 10% make it through the whole cycle. And so when we gather them, we shelter them so they have a much better chance of survival. So let's talk about, you know, the life cycle. I guess it starts with a caterpillar? It starts with an egg. Yes. It starts with an egg and then it turns into a caterpillar in approximately three days. Three days. Yes. And then the caterpillar eats and poops and eats and poops for another seven days or so. And then it becomes a chrysalis. Which is? That is the cocoon, but it's actually a chrysalis. So moths make cocoons and butterflies make chrysalis. Okay. What does it look like? It's green. Beautiful. It has gold. Gold fleck in it. And in another 10 days, if we're lucky, the butterfly will emerge. And then what? What do you do when the butterfly emerges? So you have to give them a special treatment? I always think the butterfly is a her anyway. Let's talk about them in the female. No. So if they don't go to a wedding or funeral or party, we release them into the garden. You have to train them at all to go to the wedding of the funeral. For example, you know, you'd want them to be happy at the wedding and maybe a little sad at the funeral. Do you show them how to do that? You're very funny. So the butterflies are, they're hand-fed. So I can keep them for a few days. They're hand-fed. And if you look onto the website, there's a lot of people that are holding butterflies. And so they are used to being held. But once they're free, they go about naturally doing what butterflies do, which is pollinate and, you know, just You can hold them. Will they stay on your hand? Yes. Well, for a few seconds. And butterflies are very spiritual. They connect with certain people. So for some reason they go and fly, they pick people specifically and they stay with them. I have many stories. We have always, you know, thought of butterflies as friendly and sweet and beautiful and, you know, special quality, special personality, if you will. Is it true that they ever bite you? Do they ever do things that are, you know, not so beautiful? Well, butterflies don't have teeth. They have a proboscis, which is their tongue, and they unroll their tongue into the flower to sip nectar. So no, they cannot bite. They can't sting either. But those in the wild will not naturally come to you. They will not. So how do you get them on your hand then? Because they are, yeah, they're all hand-fed. And so they're used to being handled. But, you know, once they're free, they go about their business. Once they're finished at the wedding of the funeral, what happens to them? They go and populate the areas that they're released in. Oh, they stay. They, if there's food in that area that they're released in, then they will stay. Which is what happens in my garden. I release them and they're free to fly. It's not an enclosed garden. It's open. So they fly around all around the neighborhood and they come back and they eat and lay eggs and then the cycle starts all over again. Your garden must be very, very beautiful. It's very peaceful. Sure. Well, that's one of the characteristics of a butterfly. It's carefree and peaceful and friendly. Yes. Yes. So what do you feed them? I mean, and how do you, what kind of food do you put down to have them come back? The flowers is what they eat. So you have to get flowers for them? Yes. And in that case, you have to grow the flowers for them? Ideally, or you spend a lot of money having to buy flowers all the time. Is that it? Is that the whole diet? You don't feed them chopped liver or anything? So there's a variety of flowers that they enjoy. Milkweed is essential for their babies because that's what the baby caterpillars eat. And we're talking specifically monarch butterflies, right? I raise only monarch butterflies. So every butterfly has its own boot plant for its babies. Is the one on the screen behind you a monarch? That is a monarch. Oh, I'm so, we're looking for one, you know, so we got the right one. Yes. Thank you very much. So Darlene, you know a lot about this. I mean, how did you learn this? Did you go study or what? I've been progressively doing this for almost eight years now. And I do belong to two butterfly associations. One is the International Butterfly Breeders Association and the other one is Association for Butterflies. So there are forums, forums. There are conferences that I attend every year. Lots of networking, best practices that I learn. And I also have a team of people that I work with. Oh, in your company, in your butterfly company? Yes. What's the name of your company? Sharing the butterfly experience. And the name of your website is sharing the butterfly experience, what? Dot com. Yes. So I have about 15 to 20 people that work with me and they raise butterflies and that's how we get so many. So one of my clients is the Legacy of Life and every year they order a hundred plus butterflies to be released to honor the organ donor, the families of the organ donor. So let's talk about that. So I'm an organization that would like to have butterflies for whatever reason, a nonprofit, sounds like appropriate. And I want to have butterflies. Like for a celebration. Celebration. If you're doing this, butterflies are very symbolic of change. Change. Yeah, the metamorphosis that happens. So if you, for weddings, the metamorphosis is the transition from being single to married. For births, you know, the newborn babies, it's the coming of the baby, right? So there are lots of reasons to have butterflies to help you celebrate. Well, I didn't, you know, I guess really the metamorphosis part really strikes me. So you started out by yourself because you were a hobbyist and you really liked butterflies. And now you have, you know, a dozen people or more that you work with, then you go to weddings and moments was and everything. So how did that happen? What made you, you know, take it so seriously? So I started with just a garden, a butterfly garden. I started with a few plants. And lots of trial and error. And then talking with people in the associations that I belong to and what they are doing. In the mainland, butterfly releases are so much more popular than Hawaii. In Hawaii, I'm still trying to educate the public that butterflies are an option. People don't think about butterflies when they are planning a wedding or a celebration. But butterflies are native to Hawaii. There's plenty of them around, yeah? There's lots of butterflies, but again, there are lots of predators. So that's why you don't see as many as you did maybe 25 years ago. So let's go back to my scenario. So there you are sitting in your sharing the experience office and the phone rings. And it says, you say hello, Jay. And I say, you know, Darlene, I want to have some butterflies at my bar mitzvah. What happens then? So then I ask you what the date is, because if you want a lot of butterflies, we need some lead time. Then I ask you, do you want a basket release? Or do you want individuals? So my favorite is the individual because people can release their own butterfly at your celebration. It's very personal. I saw a photograph you showed me of a butterfly in a little, little tiny envelope. It's a good thing that butterflies don't have claustrophobia because I guess they don't. Because there's not a lot of room in this envelope. Can you talk about how that works? So when we put them in the envelope, we put them in a cooler. And while they are cool, they sleep. So you'd have to take them out just a few minutes before you're ready to release them. And that way they will wake up. Perfect, perfect. This is a secret. Call it a trade secret, if you will. Okay, so now I'm at the bar mitzvah and the moment is right. I mean it's a queue somehow and we have a hundred people all with these little envelopes in their pockets and it's time for the release. What do I do? So you can either do a blessing, a prayer or a poem, depending on your occasion. And then everyone stands together and releases the butterflies together. Oh, on cue. So now you have a plume, a plume of butterflies flittering around. And the chances are that if someone's wearing a lei, there will be a butterfly flying to the lei or holding a flower. There's lots of times that the butterfly will stay on their hand for a few moments before it flies off, which gives you more photo opportunities. Yeah. And so then they, do they fly away or do they sort of stay around in a group at the bar mitzvah? It depends on where you're at. If you're in a garden, you've got a good chance that the butterflies are going to stick around. If you're at the beach, they're probably going to go look for flowers where they can eat. Would you do this indoors? No, because there's no way for the butterflies to exit. There's no way for them to go. So outside of the church, outside of your venue, in the garden, pavilions are nice, but inside the butterflies are going to get stuck. Well, I wanted to, I want to ask you about the challenges of all of that. Let's take a short break, darling, and we'll come back and I'll ask you, you know, what you have to worry about, what you wake up at three o'clock in the morning thinking about, about your, your beloved butterflies and how they're doing and, and, you know, whether this is truly, you know, you mean for them. Okay. We'll be right back. Aloha, I'm Kisha King, host of Crossroads and Learning on Tink-Tek, Hawaii. On Crossroads and Learning, our guests and I discuss all aspects of education here in Hawaii and throughout the country. You can join us for stimulating conversations to enrich and liven and educate. We are streamed live on Tink-Tek biweekly at 4 p.m. on Mondays. Thanks so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Lillian Cumick, host of Lillian's Vegan World, the show where we talk about veganism and the plant-based diet located in Honolulu, Hawaii. I'm a vegan chef and cooking instructor and I have lots of information to share with you about how awesome this plant-based diet is. So do tune in every second Thursday from 1 p.m. Aloha. Okay, we're back. We're live. We're talking about butterflies with Darlene Lu McDowell here in Honolulu on Tink-Tek. And we are exploring just exactly how wonderful you can make your event with butterflies, live butterflies keeping your pocket and you launch them and they all fly together. And we have this fabulous video. Can you tell us about the video, Darlene? Oh, this client, the couple allowed me to share this video. But this is at Lani Kohonua in Koholina and they had 100 guests. Well, they had 100 butterflies and everyone along the aisle released a butterfly after they exchanged their vows. So there were butterflies flying everywhere. Let's take a look. Fabulous. That's a little envelope we have and those are the flowers and the butterflies are flying everywhere. This is so beautiful and the butterflies are totally perfect for it. Totally perfect. Makes you want to get married, no? Yeah. So I want to thank Cash Creative for creating that awesome video. He really did an awesome job. Yeah, that's wonderful. It captures the moment. It does. The butterflies are part of it. And it's a great finale because people will remember all of the butterflies flying around. So what happens? Now I'm asking you my questions about challenges and complications that might arise. What happens if the ceremony goes a little too long and the butterflies, which have been in low temperature, refrigerator, what have you, it's getting warm. It's outside. Do they get antsy? They will be getting antsy. How do they get active? They do that. So they'll start scratching on the envelope and saying, you know, I want to come out. So the trick is to distribute the envelopes just before you're ready to release the butterflies. And you keep them cool until you distribute. Right, right. So a good method would be to put them in a basket and, you know, you have to prep your guests ahead of time and then do a quick distribution, yeah, quietly. And then right after the ceremony is done, then everyone has their envelope and the butterflies are ready to go. So when you prep your guests, what do you tell them? Keep it in your pocket. Don't keep it in your pocket. Sorry. Oh, that's too warm. Right, because that's warming them up. So what do you tell them? Just hold it. Don't hold the envelope. And lots of times, if you tell them there's a butterfly in there, they don't believe you. A live butterfly? It's so quiet. Yes. And so, yeah, don't smash the box or the envelope. Just hold it and then in a few minutes, you can release the butterfly. Amazing. So what do you have to worry about? I mean, butterflies, not all of them make it, right? That's correct, yes. You talked about the predators and I'm sure there are biological predators as well. Yes. What do you have to worry about in terms of keeping your babies alive? So one of the biggest challenges is to have enough butterflies for the event, which is the reason that I have the 15 to 20 people helping me raise the butterflies. In separate places. Yes, so that we all pull the butterflies together and that we have enough for our events. And so what could happen to the butterflies if things go wrong? They won't survive. There's a number of things that could go wrong. Suppose you had a sick butterfly, which you wouldn't put that in an envelope? No. Oh, I'm getting sad just thinking about it because butterflies are all totally sweet. It must hurt you to see one of them not make it. Yes, yes. And before I put them in the envelopes or in the basket, I tell them, come on, babies, it's showtime. And they say, okay, mom, we're ready. We gotta go. Oh, that's lovely. So is this business making money for you? I couldn't do it full time. It couldn't support me full time, but it brings so much joy to the recipients and the people that helped me raise them. I call it butterfly therapy because it really creates happiness for everyone. I don't know why, but I see, for example, somebody carrying a butterfly onto an airplane. The student challenges this passenger and the passenger says, no, this is not an ordinary butterfly. It's a service butterfly. Okay. So, you know, the state of Hawaii does not allow the import or export of insects. Yeah. So, yeah, that would be not a good thing. I don't know how they could treat a butterfly as an insect anyway. Butterflies so much more than a lowly insect. Yes. But I do ship to all the neighbor islands that X overnight. So, you know, it is possible to get the butterflies for release on the neighbor islands. What about mainland? Could you ship there? No. No, I cannot. So let's talk about your website because it's really beautiful. Thank you. Let's go to the homepage and you can give us a tour, Darlene, of your website, right? Okay. So under this page, if you can scroll down, it takes you, that's me, keep going, to a gallery of photos. And these are people that have released the butterflies. And on the right hand side, there's a flag with boots. And this was shared by my customer. So when she released the butterflies out of a basket, the butterfly flew to this soldier's boot and it stayed on the boot. Oh, how did you? Yeah. How did that happen? How did you? I tell you, butterflies are spiritual. They know. And it stayed. He had a photo and there was another photo with a butterfly, a different butterfly on his photo. And this soldier was killed in Afghanistan. So it was a number of years ago, very sad, but it brought a lot of joy to the family to see. So that's one of a number of photographs you have on your photographer, your gallery there. Yes. Can you talk about some others? Lots of these photos are provided by my customers. So they allow me to share them. But if you go to the top of the website under services, you can learn about butterfly releases, wedding releases, memorial. We do do a butterfly encounter where we go into a party and we bring the butterflies for feeding. And we teach. It's an educational experience. That's not Photoshop either. So there's a number of opportunities to interact with butterflies. But coming up on March 9th through April 19th, 2020, we will have the butterfly exhibit at Pearl Ridge. And so people can go in and feed the butterflies. We'll also have different activities outside of the butterfly house for those that are interested. So how do you how do you show them? Do you have a I hate to use the word cage, but do you have a place where it's a house? Yeah, it's a 17 foot by 17 foot house. And if you and other contributors put monarch butterflies in there, how do you tell which one belongs to whom? It doesn't matter. It's a commodity. It's a team of people. You're all together. We're a family of people that, you know, we all enjoy butterflies. And the people that walk in take lots of photos with their butterflies. They can feed the butterfly on a stick. So there's an opportunity to interact with the butterflies. So have you done this before at the shopping center? Have you done? Yes. So this is year number six. You're number six. Yes. You've been doing this a long time. And so you're going to continue to do this. That's my question. I'm hoping. I'm hoping to work with Pearl Ridge so that they will, you know, support the community because there's a great demand. Well, you know, the thing about it is here we are in 2020. And years back, I'm sure you remember, everybody went out into the wild all the time. They were hiking and camping. And now we talk about environment, but we don't touch it nearly as much as we used to. Yeah. You were talking about how the number of, you know, butterflies 20, 25 years ago was so much greater. And, you know, so you're not going to go out on the IA loop trail and take a hike and see them there. You might. You might. You might. If you go. But outside of our butterfly exhibit times, I do sell starter kits. And families can raise their own butterflies. We do. How nice of you. Yes. And so it's very rewarding because I have parents that send me photos of their first butterfly and the joy that it's brought the family just to watch the whole cycle. And to teach the kids. And to teach the kids. To be careful with living beings. Well, and responsibility because, you know, they have to feed the caterpillars, but they can see them grow every day. They can see the changes every day. Well, you know, here you are as a legal administrator with a full-time job because butterflies, you know, aren't free, I guess. Isn't that the old expression? And butterflies, you know, may not be able to support you. Where are you going to take this going forward? Give me a five or a 10-year plan. I feel certain you're going to continue in some way, but tell me how you will. My dream is to have the butterflies on Hawaii 50 or Magnum PI for a wedding. And that will create a huge demand because we are a destination wedding location. So once that demand starts or increases, then, you know, we can talk about possibly doing this so that it can support you. Yeah, that would make them very popular around the world. Five-oh. What about just thinking, you know, if you're going to do a five-oh butterfly, you'd really like to paint the wings since Hawaii five-oh. Can you do that? No, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't matter being humane. No, yeah. But, you know, at one of the weddings, all they have to do is release butterflies and then people would be like, I want that at my wedding or my daughter's wedding and then it would just create demand. Well, you know, although you can't, you know, actually send the butterflies, you know, transport the butterflies to the mainland or outside of Hawaii for one legal reason or another, you can certainly establish a franchise, don't you think? Jay, you're so funny. One step at a time. Okay, so how can I reach you? I go to your website, sharingthebutterflyexperience.com. There's contact information there, or my phone number is 808-754-6136. All right. You know, it's a great contribution you make. It's not on the psychic benefit that you enjoy, it's you're sharing, as you say, as the name says, you're sharing your experience, you're sharing the fun and the psychic benefit of this with everyone. So that's great. Yes, that is the whole fun of this whole process. Yeah, we're here in the, you know, a factor, finance factors building, and it wouldn't surprise me, and it certainly wouldn't bother me if one day I walked out into the lobby and I saw some butterflies flying into the elevator. I think the other tenants would not agree with you. Think big, darling. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jay. I'll look forward to our next discussion. Thanks, Jay. Aloha. Aloha.