LOWELL, Mich. — Liam isn’t your average 6-year-old, and he’s got a title that precedes him…
“Lepidopterist," he calls himself. "A lepidopterist is a scientist who studies butterflies and moths!”
He fell in love with the flying insects at age 2, and by age 3, he started working to save their dying population, and it all starts with plant.
“Milkweed," Liam explains. "That’s the basic plant for monarchs to lay their eggs in, and the caterpillars start munching on it.”
The more milkweed that gets planted, the more places for monarchs to lay eggs and eat. That’s why Liam created his project Amigos for Monarchs, sending milkweed seeds so people can plant them.
Liam set a goal for 2021: Send out 500 packets before the growing season ended.
Amigos for Monarchs hopes to save butterflies one seed kit at a time.
“We had originally started tracking to see how many times we had gone to the post office," says Betsy, Liam's mother. "But after that we quickly lost track.”
It doesn’t matter how many trips it took, today’s was special…
“21 of these amigos for monarch’s seed packets!” Liam says, placing a bundle of letters on the counter of the post office. These 21 letters mean Liam has now hit his goal of sending out 500 seed kits.
He’s sent kits all over, as far as Texas and California, but a trip to the post office wouldn’t be complete without a little fan mail.
“Thank you so much for the butterfly seed kits," Betsy and Liam read from a letter. "We are going to plant them in our peace garden at Crystal Lake Montessori school.”
After sending kit 500, Liam is not done yet. Kits are still available to be ordered until July 1, so if you want to get your hands on a milkweed seed kit, you can do that right here.
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