Year in Review: But still, the Butterfly Effect Project rises
It was a roller coaster of a year for the Butterfly Effect Project. After a tough start to 2025, the Jamesport nonprofit established to empower youth in the community refused to be kept down and ended the year sky-high.
In March, The Butterfly Effect Project called attention to a series of “disgusting racist tropes” and “hateful” comments posted on its Facebook page in response to announcing its annual Wo/man Empower Wo/men fundraiser.
The group’s founder, Tijuana Fulford, held a press conference to address the social media attacks against her organization. Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard, council members Denise Merrifield and Bob Kern, and Mark McLaughlin, chairman of Riverhead’s Anti-Bias Task Force, attended the conference. Brookhaven Town Executive Dan Panico also publicly denounced the attacks on his social media account, calling them “grotesquely racist and ignorant.”
“I will not act like it did not happen … I will not allow commentary — hateful, negative, vile and racist voices — to silence the joyful noise that the Butterfly Effect Project makes,” Ms. Fulford said at the press conference.
Later in the month amid phoned-in threats of violence to people and property, the organization canceled its Pearls of Wisdom fundraiser event due to safety concerns. It started with people calling headquarters and hanging up, which Ms. Fulford said she didn’t think was out of the ordinary at first. However, once the organization continued announcing more details about its Pearls of Wisdom event, she said the calls grew progressively worse, with people hurling profanities, anti-Black comments and racist tropes.
Ms. Fulford and the organization in general took a step back to regroup and put new safety measures in place at its headquarters. Both the Suffolk County Hate Crimes Unit and Riverhead police, who investigated the initial social media comments and the phone calls determined the attacks were not considered hate crimes, but hate incidents, which was “a whole other pill to swallow” for Ms. Fulford.
The community rallied around Ms. Fulford and the Butterfly Effect Project, however, donating enough funds by April to send two young women to Duke University this summer to take part in a pre-college program geared to advancing their future medical careers.
More than $8,950 was generated by a fundraiser to send high school juniors Gianna Miller and Genesis Fulford to the National Student Leadership Conference pre-college medicine and healthcare program at Duke University in July.
In mid-May, the Butterfly Effect Project celebrated its decade of impact, empowerment and community at the 2025 Wo/Man Empower Wo/Men Luncheon. Tickets sold out.
Another successful event was held in June — a free Juneteenth community celebration. Ms. Fulford said, “I think that the most important thing that Juneteenth means to me is the idea that we can finally move forward, the idea that I’m allowed to dream today — I can actually give and receive openly today, I’m free.”
Also in June, The Butterfly Effect Project became one of three beneficiaries to the annual Riverhead Rotary Uncorked event. First time co-chair of the event, Tom Lennon said, “The Butterfly Effect Project has had a rough year, and we thought this would help them.” Co-chair Sherry Patterson agreed: “When we saw what happened and they had to cancel their fundraiser, we had to step up and help them.”
Before June closed out, and after overcoming their own experiences with hateful social media attacks, The Butterfly Effect Project hosted a public seminar to educate community members on the differences between a hate crime and a hate incident.
The free live seminar, titled “The Line Between Hate: Understanding and Navigating Hate Incidents and Crimes,” was a collaboration with the Suffolk County Police Department Hate Crimes Unit, Riverhead Town’s Anti-Bias Task Force and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
After a busy summer of programming, college tours and constant fundraising to give kids opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise, the Butterfly Effect Project revived its Pearls of Wisdom tea party fundraiser in September. It honored 12 “pearls” of the community who each imparted wisdom on the crowd.
In October, the Butterfly Effect Project garden club celebrated its fifth season with a ribbon cutting at its permanent home in Jamesport, marking a milestone for a club that has grown from pandemic necessity to community anchor.
“Gardening was a great, safe activity for all of the Butterflies to come together,” said Brienne Ahearn, the garden club ambassador. “There was a lot of food insecurity going on at that time. So, it ticked all those boxes.” The goal is to grow enough food to feed participating families and others in the community who need it.
The year closed with a completely overflowing sleigh full of toys and gifts donated to the Butterfly Effect Project by the Cutchogue Fire Department after their annual Stuff the Sleigh 5K run/walk and an End of Year fundraising campaign.
Despite efforts to bring the Butterfly Effect Project down at the beginning of the year and facing that hate head-on with community education, Butterflies and Dragonflies showed up at events all year, dancing, marching and continuing to grow into well-rounded individuals.
