{"id":27757,"date":"2023-09-26T14:30:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T18:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=27757"},"modified":"2023-09-26T14:36:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T18:36:36","slug":"phokus-project-white-butterfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/phokus-project-white-butterfly\/","title":{"rendered":"Messages of hope and healing land in the community on butterfly wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

At their first meeting in August 2023, the members of Furman PHOKUS<\/a> (Promoting Healthy Options through Knowledge, Understanding and Service) gathered to spread messages of hope and encouragement to people in the community struggling with substance use disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you become a butterfly?\u201d began the message, printed on cards provided by the nonprofit Project White Butterfly<\/a>. The answer appeared inside: \u201cBy wanting to fly so badly you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Members of PHOKUS filled out each Project White Butterfly card with information on local addiction and recovery resources and handwritten notes of support.<\/p><\/div>\n

On blank lines in the cards, there were instructions for where help could be found \u2013 Solutions Recovery Center<\/a>, Pavillon<\/a> and the Phoenix Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all community resources that deal with substance abuse and addiction recovery,\u201d said club advisor Gwen Hirko, the health promotions coordinator for Furman\u2019s Division of Student Life<\/a>. \u201cWe made sure they were all free recovery resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cards also contained handwritten heart-to-heart messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery student wrote a sticky note to put inside the card,\u201d said Hayden Hickman \u201924, the club\u2019s president. \u201cEncouraging notes, like \u2018You\u2019re doing great,\u2019 \u2018This is the start of your journey\u2019 and \u2018This was meant to find you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s 20 or so members ended up with 70 cards zipped into plastic bags, ready to be left in places where they would be likely to be found by those who needed them. Hickman and a few other PHOKUS members headed down Poinsett Highway and into Greenville, leaving the White Butterfly packets in shopping centers, parking lots, side streets, alleys and other frequently traveled areas.<\/p>\n

Project White Butterfly was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by Sara Szelagowski, a recovering heroin addict. While she was mourning a friend\u2019s death by overdose, Szelagowski found a symbol of peace, freedom and transformation in a white butterfly circling the yard. In 2019, she and other volunteers began leaving handwritten notes in areas around the city where she knew people went to use drugs.<\/p>\n

\"\"

One of the Project White Butterfly packets left by the PHOKUS student group in various locations around Greenville, South Carolina.<\/p><\/div>\n

Szelagowski eventually expanded the grassroots effort, making customizable card kits available to other groups around the country. Ali Tull \u201926, vice president of PHOKUS, learned about Project White Butterfly while at home in Ohio over the summer of 2023.<\/p>\n

The club, which meets every Wednesday, will likely distribute more cards in the future, said Hickman, a health sciences major. PHOKUS will also continue its core focus on peer education on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to make sure students know what their resources are and have access to them,\u201d Hickman said. \u201cWe want to make sure they really understand the importance of not only mental health but physical health, nutritional well-being, sexual well-being \u2013 all kinds of health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with spreading the news about the resources available from the Trone Center for Mental Fitness, the group helps present an annual student health fair and other programs promoting mental health, nutrition, physical fitness, alcohol and drug safety, and sexual health. Recently, Hickman and her colleagues set up a table in the Trone Student Center to inform their peers about Mindlyte<\/a>, a wellness app designed for college students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group is a great student touchpoint for those things,\u201d said Hirko. \u201cSometimes, we find that the information gets out to our student body a little bit better from fellow students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The members of student organization PHOKUS took part in Project White Butterfly, placing cards around Greenville with notes of encouragement and resources for people struggling with addiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":27929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,27,30],"tags":[129,2304],"class_list":["post-27757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-sciences","category-student-life","category-top-stories","tag-mental-fitness","tag-phokus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}