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Glen Ellyn kids, adults rally around monarch butterfly

Glen Ellyn students and residents are trying to save the environment one butterfly at a time.

Spurred by students from Ben Franklin Elementary School, several community organizations are partnering to grow milkweed and raise awareness to help keep the state's insect - the monarch butterfly - from going extinct.

Monarchs, the black and orange beauties of the butterfly world, are known for their long migratory journeys, but most only live for a few weeks, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

As caterpillars, they survive on milkweed, but a reduction in the native plant is threatening the monarch's existence, Glen Ellyn Environmental Commission Chairman Adam Kreuzer said.

"Because they're not finding it, their eggs ultimately do not survive because apparently their eggs and the caterpillars need this native milkweed," Kreuzer said.

A group of students from Franklin in Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41's Problem-Based Learning program are trying to rally others to fight for the monarch.

As part of the program, students work in groups to find and present solutions to real-world problems.

At Franklin, PBL Coach Sarah Rodriguez said some students are addressing the decline of the monarch butterfly.

She said some of their proposed solutions include planting more milkweed and urging the village not to build on vacant land that contains milkweed. The students also held a "milkweed sale," raising $300 to buy milkweed plants for residents.

But the project turned into a civic initiative once students presented their findings to the village's environmental commission.

Kreuzer said after their presentation, the partnership was born, which includes the commission, the village, District 41, Glen Ellyn Park District, the Glen Ellyn Public Library, the village's department of public works and the Willowbrook Wildlife Center.

Today, the library will host a presentation on saving monarch butterflies, where attendees will be able to get milkweed seeds to plant in their own gardens.

Then, on June 20, the park district and village will plant milkweed in gardens, and participants will be given their plants to take home.

"The goal is to have a combined 100 public and private monarch milkweed butterfly gardens throughout the community that ... will be part of a registry so that ultimately we can show that Glen Ellyn and its community generally with its civic pride is doing the best we can to replace the native milkweed," Kreuzer said.

Besides spurring the greater community to act, the PBL program also benefits students, Rodriguez said.

"I think the kids are really becoming, one, environmentally conscious about all the things they've learned and then, two, they're seeing that they can make a difference," Rodriguez said.

Kreuzer said kids have the ability to open the eyes of others.

"Kids are in a position because of their youth to make us look twice at things that maybe because we're now adults we don't look at anymore," he said.

Ellie Beaudoin, 8, worked on the project and said she likes that the school program offers the opportunity to work with students of different ages.

"It makes me feel happy that I'm doing it with someone I don't know," she said. "Kind of like making a new friend."

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