Project honoring Holocaust survivors has connection to CB

Butterfly project honors Holocaust children

This weekend, Crested Butte kids and families will have the opportunity to help California students get a little closer to a special goal: painting 1.5 million butterflies in remembrance of children lost to the Holocaust.

Inspired by the documentary Paper Clips and a poem written by a child during the Holocaust, “The Butterfly,” San Diego Jewish Academy educator Jay Landau and his students are creating a special memorial. Students paint clay butterflies and then display them in or near their schools to honor the 1.5 million children lost to the Holocaust.
On Sunday, May 6, local physician and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Gloria Beim and her family will help host a butterfly painting event at the Crested Butte Community School in partnership with B’nai Butte. B’nai Butte and the After School Shul, its after school religions program, has helped arrange supplies and students and families will participate in painting on Sunday.
Dr. Beim’s mother, herself a Holocaust survivor, will be a special guest at the event, speaking to the children and helping them paint their butterflies. The timing of the event has special meaning for the Beim family.
“May 5, the day before the event, is the anniversary of the liberation day for both of my parents—my mom from hiding in Holland, and my dad from Auschwitz,” Dr. Beim said. Their story, she continued, has been a source of inspiration throughout her life, continually motivating her to pursue her dreams.
Adele Beim, Dr. Beim’s mother, has had the opportunity to participate in butterfly painting at the San Diego Jewish Academy, where her grandson (and Dr. Beim’s nephew) is a student. It’s an age-appropriate way to teach kids about the past; most kids love to paint, and the memorial of butterflies reminds them about the importance of being kind.
“I’m happy that people still want to teach their children about the Holocaust so it isn’t forgotten,” Adele Beim said. “There are still atrocities going on in other countries, and it teaches children to be better people, not to hate but to grow up understanding that it is very important to be a good human being.”
Organizers hope Sunday’s event becomes a community-wide remembrance, not limited to B’nai Butte or the town’s churches. Everyone in Crested Butte is invited to paint butterflies on Sunday; their finished art will be displayed in a yet to bet determined location in Crested Butte. Dr. Beim says if the community paints a lot of them, leaders of the Butterfly Project might include Crested Butte in a documentary they’re filming about the project. So join in on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at the Community School, and paint butterflies for the children.