Katz Dalsey students honor founders with garden, butterflies, song

Under a clear blue sky Friday, fourth-grader fingers busily dug in the sun-warmed earth outside the Katz Dalsey Academy Charter School in Camden's Rosedale section.

Their mission: Planting a butterfly garden in honor of their school's founders, the late Lewis Katz and Marcy Dalsey.

Sabiel Gomez, 9, one of the planters, deemed the project fitting.

"I thought it would be kind of nice for them, because they built our amazing school," Gomez said.

If Katz and Dalsey were listening, they'd be smiling.

Dalsey, a champion of children, and Katz, a philanthropist, businessman, and co-owner of The Inquirer, died along with five others last May 31 in a fiery crash on a private jet in Massachusetts.

The students whom they worked to create opportunities for, and a safe haven, commemorated their passing as children would - with smiles, song, and, of course, butterflies.

Dalsey's daughters Chelsea, 29, and Grace, 25, were on hand to release a box of Painted Lady and Monarch butterflies into the garden to a chorus of children's wows.

"She wanted them to feel good every day," Chelsea Dalsey said of her mother.

"She found the beauty in every place," said Grace.

Friday's tribute included the planting of a Japanese dwarf maple tree. The children in the kindergarten-through-fourth-grade school selected the plants themselves, event organizers said.

Occasions like Friday's, along with other recent honors in Dalsey's memory, have made a hard time somewhat more bearable, Dalsey's daughters said.

"We get to celebrate her in happy ways instead of the loss," Grace Dalsey said.

Joe Salema, Dalsey's partner, was also present at the ceremony.

The charter school was started in 2012 as the Knowledge A to Z (KATZ) Academy. The name was changed to Katz Dalsey Academy in October. It has two campuses. Earlier this year, Camden's Charter School Network, which includes Camden's Pride Charter, an elementary school, Camden's Promise, a middle school, and Camden Academy Charter High School, and Katz Dalsey Academy joined forces in a network partnership.

Joseph Conway, chief school administrator for the network, addressing the children, said, "We have Marcy and Lew, who are looking down and taking care of us."

The children, who spoke with affection for their school, will be helping to take care of the garden. They seemed to be looking forward to it.

"I do a lot of planting with my mom," said Angelina Orta, 10,

"I like getting dirty," said Ashley Salas-Rosas, also 10.

Probably the highlight of Friday's ceremony was release of the butterflies - a cloud of color darting upward and away.

But not long after, some had made their way back, leisurely savoring yellow and purple blossoms, as if they, too, knew they had landed in a good, safe place.