![]() Word spread, and over the past few months, students in classrooms across the nation have been folding and shipping countless butterflies to Alameda, as have other families, hospital patients and lone supporters.Īs of mid-November, more than 33,000 butterflies had been folded. Their parents and other adults then circulated the idea on social media, which the girls are not allowed to use. The girls and their parents started setting up tables at concerts and events to fold butterflies and recruit others to join the project. “A lot of times we make 500 or more in just a short period of time.” The children started with a goal of folding 15,000 butterflies by November, and weekends soon became “workends,” as Kaia and her “acta-buddy” Lillian, a compound for activist-buddy, call them. They started telling classmates and meeting once a week in Alameda. Soon after committing to the project, which she and her mom agreed should be led by kids, Kaia sent an email to several close friends, including Lillian, asking to spread the word. “We want to just keep going until the kids are free,” Kaia said in a recent interview, as nine friends and several adults hung around the house folding butterflies, as they do every week. ![]() They also plan to give 15,000 butterflies to Office of Refugee Resettlement officials who, they hope, will then take them to detention centers where the children they were made for can see them. They plan to host a rally Saturday at Oakland’s Lake Merritt Amphitheater before flying to Washington, D.C., a few days later to speak with lawmakers and leave a display of 15,000 butterflies in the Senate Rotunda. The girls have more than doubled their original goal of making 15,000 butterflies, and they’re now commanding the attention of elected officials. The butterflies - made of recycled materials - may be overwhelming in number, and that’s kind of the point. More than 200 butterflies dangled on threads hanging from a rack outside the house, and countless others were packed in a cardboard box that was shipped from Kentucky. About half a dozen stood motionless on a dining room table inside the house, while countless others rested inside a big, black garbage bag. Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Lessĭozens of colorful butterflies sat still on the wooden patio table of a home in Alameda. ![]() Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 5 of5 From left: Gage Peterson, 9, Chloe Kroumboltz, 7, Alexandra, Ford, 11, and Ezzie Johnson, 10, making origami butterflies to represent immigrant children being held at border camps on Sunday, Oct. Photos by Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 4 of5 Kaia Marbin, 11, and Lillian Ellis, 10, started a project to make origami butterflies, each to represent immigrant children held at border camps on Sunday, Oct. Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of5 Some of the origami butterflies made by children to represent immigrant children being held at border camps on Sunday, Oct. Photos by Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of5 Kaia Marbin, 11, making origami butterflies to represent immigrant children being held at border camps on Sunday, Oct.
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