The Butterfly Project

In the July issue of ZIGZAG we featured an article about the genesis of our organisation, The Craft Nest. Roz Holt (current CEO of The Nest Community) and Jodie Behn were regularly running craft workshops for girls out of Fallon Cottage in Everton Park.

As demand for classes grew, Roz could see the opportunity to empower girls with leadership roles and divided them into two age groups, with younger girls in

< Photograph (from left to right): Bella, Edde-Rose, Clair, Charlie and Rachel

Bluebirds and older girls in Red Robins.

As the girls blossomed, they were keen for new opportunities and quickly embraced the idea to be involved in the 2013 Children's Week event.

Since 1971, Children’s Week has been an annual event in Australia. Celebrated in October, the Children’s Week Council encourages diverse events and activities Australia-wide with a focus on children’s achievements and right to enjoy childhood.

The two day event was held in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens and The Craft Nest Project provided a work station alongside 20 other organisations and event providers Thousands of children, parents and teachers attended

The theme of the Craft Nest workstation was Sustainability, Reuse and Recycle.

Situated under a magnificent ancient fig tree, right in the centre of all the activity, families could stop by the Craft Nest workstation and fold butterflies from old magazine pages. Roz and Jodie hosted the activity, accompanied by Junior Facilitators Rachel (16 years), Edde-Rose (14 years), Bella (14 years), and Bluebirds Claire (11 years) and Charlie (10 years).

By the end of the event the tree was alive with over 350 colourful paper butterflies

Over the 2 days with a shared purpose friendship blossomed between the girls, despite their ages. The younger girls felt a sense of pride to be involved and the older girls felt like big sister mentors

The dedication these girls displayed during the event was phenomenal and it demonstrated to Roz that by sharing a purpose, not only can you achieve great things, but by volunteering your time to give unconditionally, you can also gain great rewards

Shared purpose was one of the values that underpinned our organisation when it was incorporated in 2014 and it gave Roz great pleasure to invite Claire, Rachel, Charlie and her daughter Edde-Rose to be amongst the first 12 founding members of The Nest Community