BOOKING FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR & SUMMER

Available for small groups (<30). Ideal for teachers, summer programs, camps, senior centers, and other groups were we're covering content. Easy to adapt for seniors centers and birthday parties. This is our most hands-on, interactive, high-impact program, and compliant to grade curriculum studies. Programs are inquiry-lead, and content/subject matter is curated for your age group or by request. 

Each participant gets a personal interaction within their range of comfort with ever one of the featured 6-8 species.

•   Programs are 1hr long
• Our capacity is 30 participants (including adults besides ourselves). If there are more than 30 we will ask some to leave. Those will need to be rebooked at a later date if so desired. *
• All attendees in the room must be above the age of 3. Those under 3 will be asked to leave.*
• A warm (18-24 C) room with a close-able door - critter friendly!
• Please do not use hand sanitizer or surfactant cleaners directly before or during the program
• Please have all participants wash their hands (soap and rinse well with water) directly prior & after program
• Participants cannot be eating during the program
• Our “guests” require a fragrance free environment
• No outside animals (except service animals)

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU:

Seating: We need a surface to handle on - either floor or desk. If kids are young (Gr1 or younger), sitting right on the floor in a circle is fun! For older kids, desks are great too. Just ensure surface is clean and clear. Arrange desks in rows or groups, so that our handler can move around easily. 

Volunteers: we don’t need them! We are good with what we do, and all animals must be handled directly by our handler. Adult participants are welcome to join within capacity, respecting the experience of the kids.

Special Requests: if you have parking instructions, special considerations or requests, certain animals you’d like to visit, driving or contact information not included below, please respond in writing. 

Safety & Consent: We won’t bring anything dangerous: our animals are safe and friendly. We will go over conduct, interactions, and handling tips at the introduction. Everyone will have a chance to experience the creatures one-on-one, and no one will be forced to do anything. Handling is at the consent of the animals: we monitor for fatigue and body language.

We are a community resource, not a replacement for your team. Our insurance and liability is not a replacement or substitution for your own. We cannot be held liable for incidents that occur when there is a lack of qualified supervision at your facility, venue or event. Please ensure you have proper protocols in place as well as sufficient staff who are certified to meet the requirements of your licensing and code.  

*Our capacity and age limit is firm, and is an insurance and safety matter.  Disregarding these policies place your children and our animals at risk. 

Phobias: Our mission is to make the world a kinder place, not more mean. Our organization exists to education, conserve, and help animals. We do not work with any dangerous animals, so phobias are a personal consideration, as there are no safety concerns we do not account for. The main conservation issues facing animals like snakes and spiders is because people kill them due to hating and fearing them, and we are here to correct that sdo that future generations have diversity and healthy ecosystems. Our goal is to provide hope for these animals in the face of human cruelty.  We do not exclude species from a program due to phobias, though we can incorporate personal emotional safety adjustments for any phobic individuals such as strong communication, ample warning, and considerate kindness - phobias are not your fault.  

This format is for big groups in open settings, it is not a presentation, instead being a pop up booth/exhibit style display your guests can flow through.  We will do a visual display at a table, and can interface with the public as they visit us. Animal encounters will occur, but not on a structured or comprehensive scale as they do in a class presentation/field trip.  Interactions are not necessarily one-on-one, no specific handling is guaranteed. Crowd control is necessary.

Cost: $210/hour

Minimum booking of 2 hours

Maximum booking of 4 hours

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU:

•  We require a table with a minimum length of 8 feet. 
• This event is best planned for an indoor space.
• If outdoors, we require a shade canopy, tent, or protective structure, and a plan B should the weather be hostile. Outdoor events are subject to weather and local conditions. We can only conduct displays outdoors when temperatures are between 18 and 25, with minimal wind and rain and safe levels of smoke.
• Our table should be backed up against a barrier or a wall to limit egress on at least 1 side, as a form of crowd control. Mobile barriers or fencing also work.
• A hand washing station or nearby rest room must be available
• Our animals have a maximum performance timeline of 4 hours 
• Our animals cannot tolerate fireworks or similar loud, disruptive displays
• It must be held during daylight hours if outside
• Volunteers and helpers: we generally don’t need them, and we cannot allow them to do much beyond crowd control as they are not permitted to handle animals. 
• If your public event is very large (200+ people), we may require you to book additional presenters for safety. 

We are a community resource, not a replacement for your team. Our insurance and liability is not a replacement or substitution for your own. We cannot be held liable for incidents that occur when there is a lack of qualified supervision at your facility, venue or event. Please ensure you have proper protocols in place as well as sufficient staff who are certified to meet the requirements of your licensing and code.  

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Please ensure you have provided the school or facility phone number as an emergency contact. This is considerate for our presenter's timely arrival - if you can't answer your cell phone during class, please provide an alternate!

• Our presenter will arrive around 15 minutes early to park and access your facility and check in/load in ahead of the first presentation. They will then set up in order to be ready for the assigned start time.
• It is a VERY full hour so please ensure your students are ready at the scheduled start time. Use a 15 prep window prior to your presentation to ensure participants are ready with washed hands and seated on the floor or at tables/desks.  Ensure any desks or tables surfaces are clean and empty.
• Please ensure you have included parking instructions for us. Load in and out, and access to buildings, carrying 50lbs of ectothermic animals is difficult, and hazardous if it is cold or icy. If we don’t have parking instructions we tend to assume that there will be either a loading zone at the front door, where we can drop off the animals and move the car, or another similar easy-access parking situation, because we cannot be outside with the animals for any length of time in severe cold or heat.
• We're bad at teleporting - if we're booked back to back in multiple classes at your school it can take some time to move between classrooms – we ask for about 10 minutes.
• At the beginning of the program, we will go over safety, conduct, and handling. Please ensure all participants are paying attention for this, including adults: it cannot be skipped.
• We don't have anything scary or dangerous. People might be scared of animals, but the animals themselves are not scary by nature. They're just animals.
• Animals are taken out one at a time for introductions, and must be always handled directly by our presenter.
• All participants will get a chance to interact with the animals according to the animal's interactive capacity and needs. We take turns as we go around the room. 
• No one has to do anything they don't want to. 
• There is lots of time for questions.
• Positive attitude and kindness towards everyone, including animals, is a necessity: we focus on strength-based learning. We are not here to sensationalize, fearmonger, scare, or create an unstable or unsafe learning experience. Our goal is to make the world a kinder place.
• Pictures are welcomed, please take as many as you like!
• It's not a requirement, but it can be a very enriching experience if the students document the experience. Many students enjoy drawing and writing. We love seeing students draw their favorite animals that they met.
• Enjoy the experience! Enjoy the animals! Ask lots of questions! You have an animal expert on site, this is a great opportunity to be curious, learn, and engage with someone passionate and knowledgeable. We love what we do, we love our creature friends, and we hope everyone can come away with a new appreciation for the little creatures we share this planet with.

We don't bring anything dangerous. The most dangerous creatures in the room are always the people! Our animals are all little and non harmful, and we employ rigorous containment procedure which is federally certified.

Please inform us in advance of any shellfish allergies. Our terrestrial arthropods, especially butterflies, have a lot in common with shellfish ("shrimps is bugs.") Measures may be taken to protect those with severe shellfish allergies. 

We are consent based and firmly believe in enthusiastic consent. Everyone will have a chance to experience the creatures one-on-one on their own terms within an interaction capacity. No one will be forced to do anything they don’t want to do. 

Handling is also at the consent of the animals: we monitor them closely for fatigue and body language, and adapt accordingly to their behaviors, which may include removing the animal from an interactive role.

Please ensure there are no outside animals during the presentation. Bringing outside animals to our presentations may cause the event to be paused or cancelled outright due to the safety issues other animals present. This includes any animals other than humans. We cannot be held responsible for any interactions, including injury, that occur as a result of the presence of prohibited outside animals. 

We are a community resource, not a replacement for your team. Our insurance and liability is not a replacement or substitution for your own. We cannot be held liable for incidents that occur when there is a lack of qualified supervision at your facility, venue or event. Please ensure you have proper protocols in place as well as sufficient staff who are certified to meet the requirements of your licensing and code.

All booking invoices for field trips are issued with a net 30 deadline to pay from the date of invoice. We require a minimum 50% deposit to reserve your date for you. Full payment is due not less than 5 business days prior to the event date of the presentation.  Sorry, we can no longer reserve dates without payment. Without a deposit to reserve your booking the date will remain available for others to bid on.

Your presenter cannot under any circumstances accept payment (except tips), they are neither insured nor liable for handling cash. Insistence on in-person payments will result in application of service or transportation fees for the significant cost to us as an ecommerce business with only lab locations. 

WAYS TO PAY: 

You will be provided with a payment link alongside your invoice: payments must be made through there. 

We can also accept cheques in the mail (providing they arrive on time) or e-transfers.

If you need to pay in installments to complete your payment or deposit, no problem! Let us know your schedule. Then, proceed through into the pay portal using the button in the email, and click "edit" on the amount. 

Weekends, evenings, and stat holidays do not constitute appropriate payment timelines.  Failure to pay does not constitute a cancellation. Your presenter has been booked and may no longer be able to find other work. Our team often has to book these days off from other jobs to confirm availability your event, and if we cannot find another client to take on your booking, a rescheduling fee will apply to cover the cost of your presenter’s labor. Rescheduling fees are minimum 50% of the cost of your booking and will be applied in event of late payment or failure to pay.

 Our outreach staff carry up to date criminal record checks with vulnerable sector search. This includes ages 3 and up.

We carry full commercial and general liability insurance for working with ages 3+.

We are a registered vendor and partner with EPSB, CBE, and an acknowledged partner with ECSD.

None of our animals are medically significant or pose a threat to the well-being and safety of adults or humans. None of our animals* are suitable for human consumption, though no ingredients are toxic to humans. 

*those with shellfish allergies may be at a higher risk of being, or developing, allergies to terrestrial invertebrates such as butterflies and insects. If someone has a shellfish allergy, they should refrain from consuming or ingesting any invertebrates or invertebrate products or waste. Depending on the severity of the allergy, please ensure safety measures are in place that are compliant with those normally used for shellfish interactions with the allergic individual.

We are a community resource, not a replacement for your team. Our insurance and liability is not a replacement or substitution for your own. We cannot be held liable for incidents that occur when there is a lack of qualified supervision at your facility, venue or event. Please ensure you have proper protocols in place as well as sufficient staff who are certified to meet the requirements of your licensing and code. 

We are happy to prebook! In fact we recommend it - popular months, such as May, will often book out early in the school year or well in advance. Contact us anytime to reserve your dates. 

To formally reserve a date, you must confirm your booking via invoice,  and we require a minimum 50% deposit to reserve your date for you. Sorry, we can no longer reserve dates without payment. Without a deposit to reserve your booking the date will remain available for others to bid on.

Please ensure you have confirmation of these to assure your booking - reach out anytime if you are uncertain. 

• Date requests such as inquiries for availability, without an invoice, are not considered a valid booking and cannot be held.
• Formal cost estimates are only valid for 30 days from the date of issue, which will be stamped on your estimate. 

The deadline for cancelling or rescheduling your booking is 10 business days prior the event date.

Evenings, weekends, and stat or civic holidays are not acceptable for notification timelines.

To cancel: please send us an email with the subject line “ATTN: CANCEL (your invoice)”

Failure to provide sufficient notice on any order, or failure to pay, may result in application of rescheduling/cancellation fees, which is 50% of the cost of your invoice.

If it is less than 24 hours in advance of your field trip or presentation, you will forefeit the full cost of your invoice. 

Why? Your presenter has been booked and may no longer be able to find other work. Our team often has to book these days off from other jobs to confirm availability your event, and if we cannot find another client to take on your booking, a rescheduling fee will apply to cover the cost of your presenter’s labor. Rescheduling fees are minimum 50% of the cost of your booking. 

*for cancellations due to emergencies such as mandated regional evacuations, pandemics, or natural disasters, please reach out to us at bugs@butterflyab.com

Our company has a zero tolerance policy for harassments. Abusive, discriminatory, or inappropriate behavior towards our human and animal team members is grounds for immediate cessation, intervention, and/or possible cancellation on the spot without compensation. Further investigation may be conducted and further damages may apply.

 We have a zero tolerance policy for disrespectful, unsafe behavior and language or for harassment. Please be aware that:

• Respectful, inclusive language and behavior is a baseline we expect for a healthy working environment for our staff and animals and all the participants, young and old
• Positive attitude and kindness towards everyone, including animals, is a necessity: we are not here to sensationalize, fearmonger, scare, or create a unstable or unsafe learning experience. Our goal is to make the world a kinder place.
• Disrespectful and abusive language is grounds for immediate cancellation
• Discriminatory or prejudicial language or treatment is grounds for immediate cancellation. This includes but is not limited to prejudice on the base of race, gender, sexuality, appearance, age, or cognition level.
• Please respect the chosen pronouns and identity of participants
• Our team cultivates an inclusive, safe, consent-based and respectful learning place for every participant in every setting. This includes treating all participants, including animals, with dignity and fairness, and maintaining a place of learning that is free of harassment, discrimination, and violence. It also means welcoming collaborators with different backgrounds and capabilities. We believe diversity brings our events a wealth of experience that builds a better world.
• We are consent based: forcing of participants to engage in behaviors they do not consent to is grounds for intervention and cessation.
• We do not scare each other with the animals.