wfn.org | Fireflies light the way for this pastor

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

June 20, 2003 News media contact: Kathy Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.	10-21-71BP{329}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this story.

A UMNS Feature
By Kathy L. Gilbert*

The ethereal light of fireflies has been a beacon in the Rev. Dwight
Sullivan's life for almost 40 years.

A phone call from the scientists at the Analytical Luminescence Lab in
Baltimore starts Sullivan on his way to Tennessee to coordinate collecting of
these tiny summer insects, known as fireflies, lightning bugs or by their
scientific name, Photinus pyralis.

Sullivan, a native of Oak Ridge, Tenn., is pastor of Evangelical United
Methodist Church in Whittier, Calif.  

He was in Tennessee on a recent warm June morning to start the 2003 lightning
bug collection drive. He travels to small towns across the state, usually
setting up his temporary bug station at fire stations and city halls. He will
return to Tennessee July 24- Aug. 1 to make his final collection.

It takes him about three trips to transform the contents of his rental car
into his bug collection station. A well-worn cardboard box contains a scale,
a cardboard cylinder, a small Dixie cup, a butter knife, samples of
firefly-catching nets and a ledger for recording the number of bugs brought
in and who brought them. Another box contains dry ice and milk cartons for
transporting the bugs. Then comes the blue folding table, chair, stuffed
lightning bug and his special "lightning bug hat."

While waiting patiently for his "customers," Sullivan talks about the
wonderful things these little bugs are doing in the world of science.

Scientists extract luciferase, an enzyme, from the tails of fireflies. The
enzyme has practical uses, such as detecting the presence of bacteria in food
or bottle juices or soda pop, Sullivan explains. But the exciting news is
that luciferase is being used as a genetic marker to help in genetic
research.

Scientists are working with such tiny slices of genes; they need a way to
tell if their experiments are successful. The light from the firefly is a
signal to them when an experiment is working.

Sullivan's eyes light up when he talks about this "wonderful example of God's
creation." He dreams of the day when scientists may find the cure to diseases
such as sickle-cell anemia, cancer or Alzheimer's disease, all with the help
of lightning bugs.

He describes his work with the scientists and the firefly as the "world's
longest part-time job." He got started in 1964 when his neighbor, the son of
a biochemist, asked if he would help collect the insects.

"It is something that just gets into your blood," he says. His friend has
long since stopped collecting the bugs, but Sullivan is faithful to his
calling. His mother and brother still live in Oak Ridge, so the summer trips
also allow him time to visit them. He devotes most of his vacation time to
the program.

Over time, scientists realized the best bugs and the best bug collectors were
to be found in Tennessee. Sullivan says the people of Tennessee grabbed hold
of the idea, and the response has always been great.

Part of the reason he finds so much joy in the part-time job is the people he
meets, he says.

People like Alma Jean, one of his top collectors in Lebanon, Tenn. She has a
handicapping condition that keeps her from doing a lot of things. But she
found she could set up a lawn chair in her backyard and collect fireflies.

"She told me it makes her feel good to be doing something useful," Sullivan
says. She has made a careful study of the fireflies and discovered if she
catches a female firefly she can use it as a lure for the males. Fireflies
use their lights as a mating signal. Males fly around and make a gentle "J"
shape waiting to see the light from the more stationary female, who is
waiting on a leaf or a blade of grass.

Sullivan also has great admiration for "a family of faith" in Rockwood, Tenn.
They make it a family project and use the money to do something together as a
family. 

"One year, they brought in 1,000 grams of bugs," he says. "They are the
embodiment of intentional priority of family. It is a lovely thing, you can
just feel the love they have for each other."

The scientists are paying 33 cents for a gram of bugs this year. A small
Dixie cup full equals about an ounce, and that will get you $9.50. The
delicate bugs have to be frozen on the same night they are collected and
cannot be allowed to thaw.

Collecting and freezing the bugs may sound a little cruel but think of it
this way, Sullivan suggests: "By their sacrifice they may someday help save
lives." The average life span of a firefly is two months. 

Sullivan says one lady in her 80s in Lafayette, Tenn., goes out every night
in the summer with her three-legged dog, Blackie, and collects fireflies.

Last year, her daughter brought in her collection and said they were going to
use the money to take her out to her favorite place to eat, Kentucky Fried
Chicken. 

In front of the city hall in Carthage, Tenn., Janice Ellenburg brought in her
old Cool Whip container of frozen bugs on her lunch hour. She says she has
been collecting for about five years. 

Sullivan carefully measures out her contributions and thanks her for bringing
in the "first fruits of the season." 

A veteran firefly catcher, Ellenburg has some advice for beginners.  "Don't
bother going out before 8 p.m.," she says. "They won't be out before then."
Ellenburg uses a net made out of a pillowcase, coat-hanger wire and wooden
paint stirrers. She hopes to get more people involved in collecting the bugs.

"I have cancer, so I feel like this is helping," she explains.

For more information or to contribute to this year's collection, call
1-888-520-1272; 
e-mail: fireflyproject@yahoo.com; or write Firefly Project, c/o 103 Wiltshire
Dr., Oak Ridge, TN 37830.

 
 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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