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Plains, Georgia honors former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Garden with dancing monarch sculpture

You can see it this weekend during Butterfly Daze

PLAINS, Ga. — If you're looking for a day of fun with a historical twist, head to Plains on Saturday.

It's outside of Albany and home to former First Lady Rosalynn and former President Jimmy Carter.

The town is honoring their favorite daughter with a larger-than-life sculpture created by Peter Hazel.

"I can just imagine what she was like running around right there as a little girl," he described.

Hazel created the now-signature piece in former First Lady Rosalynn Carter's childhood garden.

It sits in the yard next to the home where she grew up.

"We did it in about two months," he calculated.

Phase one happened last year when they broke ground on the project. Phase two is of course the beautiful sculpture and phase three will happen when they fill the surrounding field with plants that will, of course, attract butterflies.

Rosalynn's loved butterflies since she was old enough to walk around and play.

The dancing monarch sculpture is a nod to her birthday coming up next week.  

It's got eight limbs and 18 butterflies that hover over the greenery, thus signifying 8/18.

"I think we hit a homerun with the color and the black bodies, Peter said with a smile. "The first one I made said, 'And what would happen if I took a piece of glass here and put in black?' and it was like, 'Whoa, that is cool.'"

Tim Buchanan is with the Friends of Jimmy Carter group.

"Chip, one of their sons, was out here yesterday, and he helped put up one of the limbs, and he told us that both of his parents are incredibly excited about it and looking forward to seeing it," Tim said.

You can see it, too.

The city will celebrate Butterfly Daze with an unveiling Saturday morning.

"And we'll be releasing 250 butterflies," Tim calculated.

Downtown Plains will have food vendors and activities for the kids, but before it's official, the giant tribute to a woman who loves nature has sparked some curiosity among tourists.

Kemba Breynan and her friends are from Michigan.

"It blended in really well with a tree, so I didn't think it was anything at first, but then I saw the butterflies and they're bigger than life-size," Kemba said.

"So this will be one of the gardens on the butterfly trail," Tim stated.

You can see the trail downtown, but it stretches into 48 states and 13 countries.

So fly down to Plains this weekend for the colorful celebration that honors Rosalynn Carter, her childhood memories and the life spent admiring the monarchs.

Sculptor Peter Hazel is well-known -- he created the iconic Burning Man piece.

If you can't make it this weekend and would like to have your yard become a part of the Rosalynn Carter butterfly trail, no problem -- all you have to do is register.

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