When Peggy Campbell-Rush was 6 years old, she became so enamored of the hundreds of monarch butterflies flitting around the family’s cottage on Long Beach Island that her mother bought her a net. She spent the day catching these winged wonders but was immediately faced with a decision: what to do with them.
“I put them in our little, teeny bathroom,” she said, laughing. “Then, my father came home, and he opened the door with a flourish, and all of them flew out!”
How many had she collected? Apparently, a lot. The family spent the next four to five hours returning them to the outdoors.
The experience launched a lifelong fascination with the monarch, one that found a home years later in Campbell-Rush’s career as an educator introducing her kindergarteners to these brilliant creatures.
“I would actually raise them and bring them into the classroom and have the children watch the caterpillars grow on the milkweed and then form a chrysalis and then transform and metamorphose into the butterflies,” she said. “Then, we would release them together.”
Raising monarchs means planting milkweed, which is necessary for the butterflies to lay their eggs and the larvae to eat, and nectar plants to attract mature members of their population. Campbell-Rush made her yard into a habitat and got it registered with Monarch Watch as a monarch waystation.
The monarch remained a constant interest for Campbell-Rush over the years — throughout her time as head of The Bolles Lower School Ponte Vedra Beach Campus from 2014 to her retirement in 2020 and her battle with stage 3 breast cancer as a young woman.
But there was one great experience prized by butterfly lovers everywhere that eluded her: A visit to the overwintering site just as millions of monarchs prepared to take wing in one of nature’s grandest wonders, the annual 3,000-mile migration from Mexico to Canada.
Now, in her golden years, Campbell-Rush’s opportunity has arrived, thanks to Wish of a Lifetime from AARP.
Reading the AARP magazine one day at the beach, she discovered stories about people who had been granted lifelong wishes through the affiliate organization, Wish of a Lifetime. So, she applied, was interviewed and was granted her wish.
She has now joined a group comprised entirely of women on a scientific and photographic journey in the mountains of Central Mexico where the monarchs winter among the oyamel fir trees, more than 7,000 feet above sea level.
“I cannot wait!” she exclaimed last week before departing. “This is just a miracle. … Can you imagine doing this your whole life and then having this opportunity?”
“We love to see these wishes come true,” said Wish of a Lifetime’s Southeast Field Representative Natasha Hartsfield. Last year, her region granted 273 wishes. Nationwide, the organization has granted about 3,000 wishes since its founding in 2008.
“We grant experiential wishes for people 65 and older to bring hope and joy and to inspire others,” Hartsfield said.
Interested people can apply to the program at wishofalifetime.org. They can nominate themselves or someone else, but the wish must meet certain criteria. It must have a compelling story. It must impact lives.
For Campbell-Rush, it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, something that will enrich her mission to continue educating children and adults.
Today, Campbell-Rush advocates for at least three things: get a mammogram, something she said saved her life; plant milkweed and flowers to help monarchs in their migration; and “keep wishing, no matter how old you are.”
