{"id":13203,"date":"2025-06-04T09:05:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T13:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13203"},"modified":"2025-06-04T09:17:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T13:17:38","slug":"13203","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13203","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was like I walked to the edge of a miracle.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ve been intrigued by the monarch butterfly since I was a little girl,\u201d says Peggy Campbell-Rush \u201976, remembering late August days in Ship Bottom, New Jersey, when she\u2019d try to catch one of the hundreds that flew around her. What she didn\u2019t know back then was that her childhood <\/span>wonder placed her in the middle of a natural marvel that she would later come to know intimately: the majestic, yet somewhat mysterious, monarch migration. <\/span><\/p>\n

Each year, tens of millions of monarch butterflies \u2014 with their iconic orange wings and black and white markings \u2014travel a two-way migration over the course of about eight months. First, they spend the summer breeding on milkweed plants throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada. In late August, they journey over 3,000 miles south to the Michoac\u00e1n mountains of Mexico, where they rest for the winter. Then come spring, they fly north again to start a new breeding season. <\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell-Rush and other monarch enthusiasts consider the resting period, often referred to as \u201coverwintering,\u201d as the most remarkable stage of the migration. No one knows for sure why or how the monarchs are programmed to come to this particular area, though the temperatures and the natural ecosystem provide perfect conditions for millions of monarchs to congregate in the forest\u2019s oyamel fir trees. Thousands may roost on just a single tree branch. \u201cThey cover the entire forest,\u201d says Campbell-Rush. \u201cYou can\u2019t see the forest for the butterflies. It\u2019s something I have wanted to experience since I first learned about it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Not many people have had the chance to see the spectacle. But thanks to Wish of a Lifetime, an AARP program that helps to keep senior citizens connected to their passions, Campbell-Rush is one of them. \u201cI was reading AARP\u2019s magazine,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I saw that they had this Wish of a Lifetime for older people.\u201d <\/span>Inspired by stories of seniors who followed passions to places like Gettysburg and Ellis Island, she decided to apply. <\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell-Rush wanted the chance to witness the monarch overwintering to help her convince others of the need to protect these beautiful creatures. A career educator,<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Illustration
Illustration of Peggy Campbell-Rush<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Campbell-Rush has taught in New Jersey and Florida and was twice named a New Jersey Teacher of the Year finalist; she\u2019s also a two-time Fulbright Education Fellow. She\u2019s wowed her elementary students with hands-on learning experiences. A favorite lesson was to teach the life cycle of butterflies. She\u2019d bring chrysalises to the classroom so students could watch caterpillars turn to butterflies. It was a lesson in conservation, too. Monarchs are a threatened species due to a number of factors, including deforestation in Mexico and the overuse of pesticides in the U.S. that kill the milkweed, a crucial food source and a breeding ground for the monarchs. She encourages students and neighbors alike to plant milkweed; her own garden, filled with milkweed, is registered as a Monarch Waystation for the migration. <\/span><\/p>\n

Her wish was granted. In February 2025, she set out on an expedition to see the monarch migration through <\/span>the World Wildlife Foundation and National Habitat Adventures. \u201cThe goal of the trip was to learn more about the monarchs and come back and educate others,\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n

Campbell-Rush\u2019s trek to the Michoac\u00e1n mountains was as arduous as that of the butterflies she was about to study. First there was a spirited send-off from preschoolers donned in butterfly wings at the Riverside Presbyterian Day School in Jacksonville, Florida, where Campbell-Rush serves as the Early Learning Center coordinator. Then it was a series of planes, buses, and pick-up trucks to get from Mexico City and ultimately to the foot of the El Rosario Sanctuary, a protected area where the monarchs spend winters. \u201cWe rode horses straight up the mountains to about 11,000 feet,\u201d says Campbell-Rush. A final 30-minute hike got her to a clearing in the sanctuary, revealing millions of butterflies. \u201cIt was this eureka moment. It was like I walked to the edge of a miracle,\u201d she says. \u201cI just knelt down because it was so amazing.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

She spent the next three days immersed, quite literally, in monarchs. \u201cThey land on you,\u201d she says. \u201cBut you can\u2019t touch them. You have to just stay still until they\u2019re ready to leave you.\u201d In fact, much of her time in the sanctuary was quiet introspection while listening to the sounds of wings flapping. \u201cIt\u2019s a hibernation of sorts for the butterflies, but they aren\u2019t inactive,\u201d she says. \u201cThey fly to streams to drink. They keep their wings open for warmth from the sun.\u201d At night, there were lectures from entomologist and adventure leader Court Whelan, author of The Monarch Migration: A Journey through the Monarch Butterfly\u2019s Winter Home.<\/em> He calls the monarch\u2019s migratory pattern one of the most highly evolved of any species: \u201cWhen it comes down to the impressiveness of a species, this takes the cake.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Back home, Campbell-Rush is eager to talk to anyone about her trip who will listen. She\u2019s brought her photos to assemblies at elementary schools and to community centers. She urges people to plant milkweed and delights in the fact that, by mid-March, she had already seen a monarch fluttering in her backyard garden. It\u2019s not an impossibility that it was one she saw in Mexico. \u201cI hope a whole new generation will love and appreciate the monarchs as I do,\u201d she says. \u201cI get to spread the magic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Illustrations: Vivian Shih<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peggy Campbell-Rush \u201976 is all aflutter as she crosses seeing the monarch
\nbutterfly migration off her bucket list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":13208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13203"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13241,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13203\/revisions\/13241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}