Bodkin Students Plant Butterfly Garden

Students from Bodkin Elementary School helped make a home for some colorful visitors as they planted a monarch butterfly garden on school grounds on Tuesday.

The planting took place with the help of a $1,000 grant from sources such as the Chesapeake Bay Trust. Outdoor educators from Arlington Echo were on hand to teach and assist the students.

"We've got several gardens, including a butterfly garden and a garden that includes anything that's edible such as parsley," said Sean McGuinn with Arlington Echo. "We're hoping to attract monarch butterflies and other kinds of butterflies as well."

"This has been planned for quite some time, I would say about a year or so," added McGuinn. "The students in Anne Arundel County have been coming to our greenhouse since fall. These are some of the plants that we've had in our greenhouse that have grown quite large."

"I think this is a great program and a good cooperation that we have with Arlington Echo," said second grade social studies teacher Donna Rush. "We are a national green school and we take great pride in that, so we try and continually educate our children on different ways that they can be a part of that."

"Our students are very environmentally aware," added Rush. "We have recycling in our cafeteria and in our classrooms. It's all in the direction of being Chesapeake Bay stewards."