Elaine sits at a desk in a Monarch classroom after school, troubleshooting a computerized embroidery machine that has stopped operating. She’s surrounded by piles of fabric, bins full of spools of thread, and students diligently bent over the colorful embroidery products they market, produce, and sell for Monarch’s Butterfly Enterprises sewing program. Today’s focus: kitchen towels and aprons.
Elaine studies the complex machine while putting out five or six fires: A student searches for a bag of towels; it’s finally located beneath a chair. A machine fails to apply a design properly; it’s an issue with how the bobbin is placed. A sixth-grade boy about to produce a custom design on a kitchen towel wonders what color towel he should select; Elaine suggests blue since they’re short on blue merchandise for an upcoming show. A high school girl needs reassurance that she’s properly placed fabric in a frame before the design is applied. And finally, Elaine instructs two boys on doing inventory. Then she beams as she realizes the machine she’s studying just needs a part to be clicked back into place, and then it works!
Elaine has been advising students in Butterfly Enterprises since 2005, when she answered the call for a volunteer to guide the student entrepreneurs. She had toured Monarch School with her friend Betty Beyster, a generous sponsor of the sewing program. Elaine saw a perfect fit: she’d been a teacher and loved working with kids, and had experience in jewelry-making, the focus of Butterfly Enterprises at that time. The embroidery/sewing program was introduced in 2007.
Butterfly Enterprises students design, develop and produce products for sale including butterfly-themed bead jewelry, note cards, custom-embroidered kitchen towels and aprons, and more. Through this program offered in conjunction with Junior Achievement, students develop business models, study profit and loss projections, and discuss marketing strategies. The sale of their products is invested back into the business.
Recently students produced products for a show at the La Jolla Motorcar Classic. They produced custom-embroidered products with antique car designs especially for this event. And more new ideas are on the horizon: key rings and coasters, with embroidered designs showing through from beneath clear acrylic. The students also plan to promote custom-embroidered tote bags, after Elaine has the chance to teach them how to sew them together once the design is applied.
The sewing students recently made a key business decision regarding strategy. They chose to use a new line of fruit designs that have a cleaner, simpler look. Students feel that these will sell better than the previous designs, which were more ornate. Elaine stresses the importance of letting the kids make their own decisions. “This is their business,” she says.
Elaine says they get excited about doing shows in the community. “They love it. They’re just beaming when they talk to people.” She says they proudly say, “I made this,” when showing products to potential customers.
And what about storing all this inventory? Monarch is famously short on storage space, but that doesn’t bother Elaine. She has a “Monarch room” at her home, stacked with fabric and merchandise, a true testament to her level of commitment to these students.
“They’re just a good group of kids. They really want to succeed. I just love these kids,” says Elaine. And Monarch loves Elaine!
