By Anthony Stanford –
Former Aurora mayor Tom Weisner has a butterfly photo collection. You don’t have to take my word for it; check out the dazzling photos for yourself. It’s on the first floor of the Santori Public Library of Aurora in the Kiwanis Children’s Center (KCC) at River and Benton Streets.
In various sizes and positioned on top of bookcases, the photos are visually stunning and appear to float through KCC. Weisner’s photos of the Lepidoptera species, more commonly known as the butterfly, was taken when he and his wife, Marilyn, visited the Butterfly Pavilion at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C..
Songwriter and friend Brad Greene III assisted in erecting the display-supports that help to transform the photo reproductions into a lifelike and must-see visual experience.
Library executive director Daisy Porter Reynolds said, “We’re delighted to exhibit Mr. Weisner’s photographs in the Kiwanis Children’s Center. The display dovetailed with our annual butterfly release party celebrated after a week of observing the growth cycle of real butterflies. It was great to watch the little ones and their parents ooh and aah over the butterflies and then move on to Mr. Weisner’s photographs.”
Weisner’s interest in photography, lifelong love of nature, and caring for the environment are reflected in the initiatives that he championed throughout his tenure as Aurora’s mayor.
Motivated by memories of a time when monarch butterflies were abundant, in 2015 while a member of the Illinois Tollway Board of Directors, Weisner proposed a program to utilize unused tollway properties to increase milkweed, a staple in the diet of monarch butterflies. Recognizing the potential to aid in the repopulation of the struggling butterfly as well as to spur positive agricultural and economic advantages for the State, the Tollway Board adopted Weisner’s concept.
Tom Weisner photo
Former Illinois Tollway Board chairwoman Paula Wolff said the importance of the project, “was twofold. Not only did it provide a natural habitat for the State butterfly when the population was threatened, but it demonstrated so clearly that the impact of the Tollway goes far beyond building and managing roads. In 2015, the Board approved the project and during that year the annual high school art competition required that contestants include the monarch in the tollway map cover design submissions.” The winning art “was used on the official 2016 Illinois Tollway map with a picture of the iconic monarch butterfly, all thanks to mayor Weisner’s initiative.”
Waxing nostalgically, Weisner talked about his personal connection to nature and the three years that he and Marilyn, as members of the Peace Corps, lived in the rainforest. “You know,” said Weisner, “the older I get, the more I appreciate the beauty of things, whether it’s a butterfly, a flower, or a two-year-old child.”
Anthony Stanford is an author and Aurora Public Library Media Consultant.