Each Summer, we hire an Intern to work with our Children’s Librarians and programs with the aim of giving them some experience in a library and learning about Early Literacy. 
Each Intern typically completes a project over the course of the summer that enhances the library services to our youngest customers. This summer, our Intern took on the project of planting of a Native Butterfly Garden for the Library, turning it into a Language Rich Library Environment and planned an accompanying program to celebrate the new space. The native plants were donated from a local non-profit nursery, ELM Environmental Center’s Native Plant Nursery. The garden was planted outside the windows of the Children’s Section. Paper butterflies with fun facts decorate the inside windows, and a nearby felt board with butterfly life cycle pieces is nearby.
During the planning and planting process of the garden, butterflies were raised from caterpillars in a display nursery in the Children’s Section. The cost of this center was minimal since most everything was donated.
The aim of this learning center is to engage children in learning about the life cycle of a butterfly, pollination, native plants, and gardening.
To kick off this new space in our Children’s section, a program as held. The program included a wing-themed storytime and a butterfly release! After stortyime children made a tissue-paper butterfly craft to take home and painted a rock to decorate the Library’s garden.”‹