By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
LINCROFT – Students and faculty at Brookdale Community College have plans for a new garden to benefit two important populations: butterflies and humans.
According to a recent report from the Center for Biological Diversity, the Eastern Monarch butterfly population has fallen again, down 26 percent from last year, with an overall decline of 80 percent over the past two decades.
And even before the pandemic, more students were seeking counseling, said Maeve Maguire, a Middletown resident and current Brookdale student. Maguire is president of The Innovation Network (TIN), the campus organization spearheading the garden project.
“We had a psychology professor come and visit a meeting… and she was talking about how there were a really large number of students coming in in crisis and in need of counseling, proportionately compared to what she had seen previously,” Maguire said.
She noted how discussions about creating a butterfly garden had been floating around campus for a while when TIN decided the tackle the project.
“There’s kind of a global environmental and health initiative that’s been the theme of Brookdale for the past two years,” Maguire said. “So, we thought (a butterfly garden) aligned with the current mission. And a lot of students in TIN are interested in environmentalism.”
TIN fosters interdepartmental collaboration through community service, outreach programs, and network opportunities to enhance 21st-century project-based workplace skills. The goal is to create real-world experiences for students to enhance their academic learning.
Someone in the organization knew how to get the garden certified as a monarch waystation; a professor who has been as herbalist for 20 years is helping with the “aromatics” part of the project; and chimes will be installed for the meditation aspect. Benches are already located in the planned area of the project for students to relax and enjoy the garden.
All the plants are local and will come from Molzon’s in Lincroft. The wood for the raised beds will come from Monmouth Building Center in Shrewsbury. TIN is paying for the project with monies from donations and fundraisers.
Maguire said they plan to have the first phase of the project finished by the last day of the semester, May 11, but “the goal of the garden is to be an educational tool,” she noted, which means it will grow over time to incorporate other “themes” and “students from different departments.” Though Maguire is a senior at Brookdale – she will be transferring in the fall to St. Elizabeth University to study nutrition and dietetics – she is happy to be able to see the first part of the project to fruition.
The garden will be located outside the Student Life Center on a currently bare patch of grass.
“We all are working with the college’s education department to offer service learning by tying the garden to all of the curriculums at Brookdale, from automotive to paralegal,” said Jeannate Falotico, TIN’s vice president. “All students throughout Monmouth County will be invited to discover and learn in the garden.”
“QR codes will be used for education,” said Maguire. “Every plant will have a QR code next to it, and (there will be) additional QR codes with information about butterflies and links to a library of information that we are building. Included will be the common name of the plants, scientific name of the plants, a fun fact, why it’s important to the garden.” The medicinal properties of the herbs will be listed, as well.
Keeping in line with TIN’s mission, another student, working with the English department, will be compiling a journal to document the garden, cataloguing the plants, taking photos and writing about the process.
Pandemic precautions were also considered during the planning of the garden so everyone can enjoy it safely.
This article was originally published in the March 18-24, 2021 edition of The Two River Times.
