Luna moth project honors fallen Carroll Marine
Sculpture at nature center to recall boy who loved insects, died in Afghanistan
When James Michael Malachowski was a young boy in Carroll County, he loved insects.
He entered projects into 4-H county fair competitions, kept a pet tarantula — his mother remembers it often got loose in their home — and led nature walks at the Bear Branch Nature Center in Westminster.
Before he turned 10, he was even helping to teach high school students about entomology.
“We figured he’d be a little scientist or something,” said his mother, Alison Malachowski. “But no, he chose the Marine Corps when he was 17. He said that’s what he wanted to do. And just as he excelled with his bugs, he excelled with the Marines as well.”
In March 2011, however, Malachowski was killed in Afghanistan during combat operations. He was 25.
His family has been keeping his memory alive ever since.
“He said, ‘I just don’t want anyone to forget I ever lived,’ ” said his mother, recalling one of her last conversations with her son.
Asection of Route140 in Westminster was recently named in his memory, and another project is taking flight.
Ted McNett, assistant supervisor for career and technology education for Carroll Bob Baugher, left, and Robert Useller work together on the luna moth sculpture meant to memorialize James Malachowski, a Marine who was killed in 2011 in Afghanistan. County Public Schools, came to the Malachowski family two years ago with an art project designed to honor their son. They gave their blessing.
That was the birth of the Luna Moth Project, an art installation that McNett says harkens back to the time he taught a young Jimmy Malachowski at the Carroll County Outdoor School. He recalled that the youngster led an evening activity where students collected insects.
“One of his most exciting things, that somehow stuck in my head, was he caught a luna moth,” he recalled. “That was sort of the prize for him at the time, that he was able to do that and preserve that specimen.”
McNett, who is also president of the Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland Inc., has combined his interests to design a 3-foot-long luna moth sculpture of steel. The sculpture is to be installed outside the Bear Branch Nature Center, “right at the location where Jimmy had done that nighttime insect collection activity,” he said. Members of the public were also invited Saturday to create smaller luna moths.
Luna moths are delicate creatures with lime-green wings. Many believe they symbolize “rebirth, renewal of body and spirit, regeneration and ... the soul itself,” says McNett on a website regarding the project.
This past Saturday, McNett invited the public to help him and members of the Blacksmith Guild work on the sculpture. People could also help create smaller luna moths that will be included in an indoor exhibit at the nature center in memory of other fallen service personnel.
The pieces for the 100 smaller luna moths were forged by a welding student at the Carroll County Career & Tech Center.
Alison Malachowski says she can’t wait to see the result, and also appreciates that the project will not only honor her son, but others as well.