Cameron is 16 years old and lives in London, Ontario. His interest in monarch butterflies began in Junior Kindergarten when his teacher brought 2 chrysalises into the classroom. The children watched the chrysalis change and a butterfly emerge. They learned about the gender of the butterflies, named them and watched their release. Cameron had an interest in all things nature from a very young age, especially insects, flowers, and trees.
Every fall during migration season he was at Hawk Cliff, near Port Stanley, where he learned about the monarch migration through talks given by The Butterfly Guy Bruce Parker. Bruce gave Cameron the opportunity to release a butterfly, peaking his interest even further. Cameron was given the book How To Raise Monarch Butterflies as a Christmas gift from his grandmother. He has been raising monarchs for the past 4 years. He started with 50 monarchs and this past year, raised, tagged, and released more than 300 monarchs.
Cameron has shared his passion for monarchs with his elementary school, ensuring that each year, the kindergarten classes have chrysalis and releases. He does private releases with neighbourhood children. He has presented classroom speeches on the life cycle of a monarch. He is the go-to guy for monarch information in his community. He is proud of his contribution to the monarch species. He invests more time each season and his caterpillar and chrysalis housing equipment has expanded to accommodate the needs.
Cameron is also an avid athlete and is involved in track and field, cycling, swimming, snowboarding, trampolining, and skateboarding, but he always makes time for the monarchs.
It was my pleasure to honour Cameron for his contributions to monarch conservation, by including his photograph in the latest edition of How to Raise Monarch Butterflies A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids.
Awesome Cameron! Way to go!!
This is awesome!!! Way to go Cameron. This is special.