‘Creating unity in the community’ | Granbury resident aims to unite local businesses with butterfly statues

You can’t spell “community” without “unity” — and no one understands that phrase better than Rachel Brister.

As a community advocate and Granbury native, Brister is determined to bring local businesses and residents closer than ever before with her new project: Butterflies of Granbury.

Inspired by the town of Hutto — known for its hippo mascot and statues — Brister has made it her goal to instill that same feeling of unity in her hometown that she experienced just driving through Hutto.

“I know it sounds so simple, but when you go to Hutto, Texas, everybody has a hippo and when you see how united they are, it is just beautiful,” she said.

According to huttotx.gov, Hutto residents and businesses proudly tout their hippo spirit with concrete hippos in many different sizes and styles displayed throughout the community. While estimates vary, it can reasonably be estimated there are between 5,000 and 10,000 concrete hippos throughout Hutto.

Utilizing the same concept, Brister approached Visit Granbury with her best friend, Amber Pilgrim, to pitch their idea for a community mascot.

“We originally designed the (idea with) pirates thinking that Granbury would be known as the pirates (to coincide with the school), but then the Cultural Arts Commission suggested we change the pirate design to a monarch butterfly,” she explained.

According to Brister’s brochure on the project, butterflies represent many things, from unification to transformation to education.

“Granbury is also fortunate enough to be part of the annual route that the monarch butterflies take from Mexico to Canada,” the brochure states. “These butterfly statues are just a small glimpse of the amazing beauty this migration incapsulates.”

With help from Pilgrim, the founder of Kingdom Reign Marketing; Deborah Rollins, event chairman of Romancing the Monarch: A Butterfly Festival; Cora Werley, board chair of the Granbury Cultural Arts Commission; and Greg Ray, the owner of Set in Stone Statuary — and the same artist who sculpted the hippos in Hutto — the Butterflies of Granbury project was born.

UN1TY

Operating under her self-founded organization, UN1TY Protecting Our Protectors, LLC, Brister began the Butterflies of Granbury project with one goal in mind: to unify our community.

"We are in very dark times within our nation and UN1TY wants to show just how powerful love is,” she said. “The ‘I’ in UN1TY is the number ‘one.’ Symbolically, this represents the unification with Christ, and how it only takes one person (him within us) to unite a city, nation, and world when we step out in faith with him.”

Brister said she originally came up with her organization during COVID, when she felt called by God to create masks for local first responders.

“(Butterflies of Granbury) wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the start of COVID and God teaching me that even when things are scary, unknown, and uncertain, he will bless it, he will guide it and he will send the people that he needs to send to get you to your end goal,” she said. “I think this is a testimony of that and his faithfulness to us.”

BUTTERFLIES OF GRANBURY

Brister’s goal for the Butterflies of Granbury project is to have a statue placed at almost every business in town to draw more customers and to show a sense of unity within Hood County.

“My heart is to see these all over town and to see local nonprofits benefiting; that's my main goal,” Brister said.

Proceeds from each statue sale will benefit local nonprofits, with the first being Granbury Lion’s Club — which is the current feature partner of the project.

“My goal is to change (the) local nonprofits (that benefit with) every (certain number of statues) sold, so that everybody can get a portion of the funds that are coming in; that's kind of my heart in doing this,” Brister said.

The concrete butterfly statues cost $1,500 each and will measure three-and-a-half feet tall and four feet wide. The statues will arrive unpainted, weighing approximately 900 pounds.

“We're just hoping it really kind of kicks off and also creates jobs for local artists,” Brister said. “The Cultural Arts Commission will be sourcing out local artists, so when a business comes by and they purchase one, they will be given a sheet of paper (with a list of local artists), so that they can hire somebody off that page to come paint their statue however they want to.”

Every statue painted must follow the city’s ordinances, like no wording and no inappropriate images. For more information, refer to the city of Granbury’s website.

“Each business has the freedom to paint it to reflect their business or however they feel,” Brister said.

Businesses that purchase a butterfly will be added to a map of Granbury that will be used to give locals and tourists an opportunity to locate and view all the butterflies around town — like a scavenger hunt.

Orders for the statues are now being accepted, with the first delivery set for July 4. Statues will be delivered to Granbury once a month.

“My goal in doing this just like I did with the Fort Worth Police Department and Fire Department is to give back in some way," Brister added. “For this, I just want to focus on challenging others to step up, to give back, and see how many lives we can change.”

She added that in the future, she hopes to create several miniature versions of the butterfly statues so Hood County residents can place one outside their home to also "take part in the town's unity."

The Butterflies of Granbury project is approved by Visit Granbury, Lake Granbury Master Gardeners, Texas Master Gardeners, Texas A&M Agrilife Extension, Romancing the Monarch: A Butterfly Festival, and the Granbury Cultural Arts Commission.

To purchase a statue, call Brister at 817-559-1465 or email butterfliesofgranbury@gmail.com.

“I feel like this is going to be something very beneficial for the city of Granbury,” she added. “In my heart, I want to be an example of God’s love and give back to the community. It’s all for UN1TY, and that’s what UN1TY is — creating unity in the community. It’s all set in stone.”