Events and Activities : CP Friends Celebrate Spring: Seussian Caring with Butterfly Program March 3

Iowa jewels to be safeguarded: Great Spangled Fritillary

A beloved old copy of the Dr. Seuss classic, whose story is as fresh today as it was 50 years ago.

Mourning Cloak

Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Photos by Jim Messina, Cedar Rapids wildlife photographer)

Spring will be coming again; it will be Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 2. There will be little live things again, and Friends of the Center Point Library will be celebrating it all with a presentation on "Attracting Butterflies" by Dennis Schlicht.

The free program will be Thursday, March 3, at 7 p.m. at the Center Point Public Library.

Dennis is a retired Central City and Cedar Rapids Washington high school biology teacher and a longtime Center Point Library Board member. He knows a lot about tallgrass prairie and midwest butterflies and in 2007 he co-authored "The Butterflies of Iowa."

In 1971 Dr. Seuss authored "The Lorax" which has become a classic children's book and environmental book for all ages. Many people think it's even more timely in today's global warming era than when Dr. Seuss wrote it.

The book's famous takeaway quote is: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

Dennis cares a whole awful lot and his presentation helps people learn how to put care into action with butterfly habitat restoration--whether it's a potted butterfly milkweed on the patio, a patch of dill in the garden or an acre of pollinator or prairie planting.

Dennis and his wife Linda, who is retired from Grant Wood AEA's Van Allen Science Teaching Center (VAST,) also put their care into action every year by donating the tiny caterpillars for the Library's Painted Lady butterfly raising project.

And, just in case you have the mistaken impression that Dennis's presentation might be a wee bit professorial, here's an example of some of the knowledge he shares with his audience: "Do you know where caterpillars come from?.....from KITTENpillars!"

Kind of Seussian, don't you think?