Rick Mikula had been breeding and sharing his love of butterflies with audiences for the past 44 years. He was President of Butterfly Rescue International and served as consultant to both the Association For Butterflies and The International Butterfly Breeders Association. Rick co-founded and was a past president of the IBBA, served as a vice president of the Canadian Butterfly Breeders and Exhibitors Association, secretary and treasurer for the New Jersey Lepidopterist Society, and was on the BOD for The Center for Landscape Design and Stewardship. He was also the pioneer and inventor of the releasing butterflies at weddings and funerals and helped to make it a global phenomenon.

Rick has written several book on butterflies including the award winning "The Family Butterfly Book", "The Butterfly Fandex" and "Garden Butterflies of North America" and served as staff writer for several magazines. He has been featured in many magazines including, People, Organic Gardening, and Entrepreneur.

He appeared on many TV shows including Animal Planet, The Discovery Channel, and served as consultant for others such as CSI - Las Vegas. Rick also designed several live commercial butterfly exhibits including the Hershey Butterfly House, Clyde Peeling's Reptiland, and DollyWood. He also helped numerous organizations install butterfly gardens at their locations and consulted to various endangered butterfly re-establishment projects such as The National Wild Turkey Federation and in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. He has conducted butterfly and botanical photography tours through Central and North America.

He presented to every type of group imaginable from children with severe developmental disadvantages to the Smithsonian Institution, and from Mainline garden clubs to the New Jersey Correctional systems and everyone in between. From Pre-K to college Rick had a program for everyone.