Giant metal butterflies and dragonflies will be up for auction on Saturday during the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs’ annual flight gala. Forty-three local artists created a collective 55 art pieces, big and small, to benefit Colorado Springs School District 11 and other local and international causes.

Community members can attend the ticketed event in person at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel or stream for free on the Rotary Club’s Facebook or Youtube.

The event raised $90,000 last year to support the Rotary Club’s community service fund, with D-11 receiving $40,000 of those funds to bolster students’ and teachers’ STEAM experiences.

“It is significant because it supports the flight grants, which allow our teachers to submit passion projects that they are excited about, and in turn it ignites passion in our kiddos and it further supports the visual and performing arts pathway schools as well as STEAM programs throughout the district,” said D-11 visual and performing arts facilitator Laurilea Mcdaniel.

Previous flight grant recipient Rich Wastler, a library technology educator at Martinez Elementary School, used his funding to establish a broadcasting system that would familiarize young students with the technology.

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art teacher Michele Arthur, meanwhile, used her grant funding to purchase a bevy of art supplies that her students otherwise wouldn’t have had access to on a yearly budget of $1,500 to $2,000.

Her $4,800 grant purchased items such as calligraphy pens, button makers and tiedye shirts and has helped to fund her art club’s effort to paint eight school murals, an especially meaningful opportunity for her special education students who have found community through painting.

“It’s an opportunity for kids maybe who don’t excel in other things to excel,” she said. “You just never know what the arts are going to enliven in somebody.”

Officials said $10,000 of last year’s D-11 contribution went toward the district’s visual and performing arts programming. Every teacher at D-11’s two arts integration pathway schools, Columbia and Martinez elementaries, were supplied art carts to infuse multiple arts disciplines into their academic lessons.

The Rotary Club’s community service fund has also used the gala’s money to support dental programs at elementary schools, Christmas and Thanksgiving initiatives at local schools and water projects across the globe. Local artists receive 10% commission for each piece they sell, too.

“You really are allowing your funds to go very far,” said Samantha Chapman, the Rotary Club’s president.

Twenty-six petite butterflies are up for auction, fit for an indoor living space, office or small outdoor garden. Garden-size pieces, including eight dragonflies and 21 butterflies, are fit for larger areas and come with an outdoor stake or indoor stand. Status Symbol Auto Body clear-coated the pieces to protect them from weather elements.

Arthur, who will be selling a piece this weekend, said she raised $4,000 the first year she participated, nearly funding her grant project in full.

“To have my paintings put on a larger piece and then auctioned off, even my students were like, ‘It sold for how much?’” Arthur said. “I just think people need to come out and realize that the arts are not dead.”

Doors open at 4 p.m. with the program set to begin at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are available online at csflight.org.