COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — If you've seen a multi-hued butterfly sculpture around Colorado Springs, there's a good chance it was constructed and painted as a part of an annual fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs known as the Wings of Change.
"For nearly 20 years," stated club president, Trevor Dierdorff, "Wings of Change has been the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs' primary fundraiser in which we're able to provide funding for projects with School District 11, (The) Salvation Army, and this year, one of our focus projects has been doing a renovation of the Acacia Park band shell."
- Watch News5's coverage of the Acacia Park band shell below:
Each spring, the Downtown-based club has an open call for colorful and creative designs that will end up being featured on a variety of butterfly and dragonfly sculptures; during this time-frame, local artists can visit the Wings of Change website to submit their concepts.
This year, the deadline to submit design concepts is May 15; artists can select between submitting concepts for "garden-sized" butterflies and dragonflies (with wingspans of 45" and 40" respectively) or petite butterflies and dragonflies (with wingspans of 9" each).
Below is a timetable of when the project will come to life:
- designs are chosen by the end of May
- paintable structures are provided to the selected artists near the beginning of June
- pieces are scheduled to finished by late July
- pieces are set to be displayed at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum near the end of August
According to the Wings of Change artist application, the larger sculptures, just over two-dozen in total, will stay on display at the Pioneers Museum during September before being auctioned off, along with the smaller sculptures, on October 3 during a celebration at Hotel Polaris.
According to the Rotary Club, there have been some years where the event has raised more than $100,000.
"We are looking to have dozens of artists participate again and help create this beautiful artwork that you see all over our city," said Dierdorff.
For additional information on the Wings of Change, click here.
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