Matthew Bernardi is a senior at Metea Valley High School in Aurora and has been involved with Scouting since he was two years old. He strives to help everyone and to make our community and world better every day, and he thought hard about how to do that with his culminating Eagle Scout project. He added a butterfly garden to the Parker Garden at the Santori Public Library of Aurora.
The Garden is open to the public and designed for those affected by memory loss. What made him decide to make the Parker Garden his Eagle Scout Project? He said, “I wanted to make sure this project was beneficial. When I heard of the opportunity to recreate memories for Alzheimer patients I was all in. Plus, the idea of a garden was a good project that would last years without much maintenance. This project really stood out to me as something that not only the Library (personnel) would appreciate, but the community of Aurora. I wanted to not only make a garden, but build trellises in the garden to add more shelter to what was in place already.”
The project included a lot of thought and planning. Matthew began his project the first week of June when he started meeting with his project coach to make sure the project met the requirements and criteria of an Eagle project. He began to research butterflies and which flowers they were attracted to. He visited a butterfly house at Peck Farm in Geneva and visited the Growing Place (Montgomery and Naperville) to determine the best flowers. Next, he designed the garden including the flowers that were going to be planted and the trellises around the shelter. Once the proposal was completed, he had to present it to the Scout’s council for approval.
The day before the project was scheduled to be completed, Matthew Bernardi bought the necessary plants, supplies, and made sure he had enough people to help him. Approximately 12 adults and Scouts from Troop 101 came together August 17 to help make his project come to life.
“I chose perennials because I want them to come back every year so that my project could last longer,” he said. “I had to include pollinators so that it would actually attract the butterflies for the garden, some tall plants for the middle and shorter for the outside. After that I chose plants with a variety of colors. Overall, all the flowers had to be non-toxic so that if they were to be eaten no harm would be done.”
Although his project was completed August 17 and he has been hard at work with the planning since June, he still has a lot of work to do. He must report expenditures, hours worked, pictures, and additional details. In addition, he’ll turn in merit badges, Eagle letters, and attend an Eagle Scout conference. After the completion of all this hard work, he will be given the award of Eagle Scout!
If you haven’t already, stop at by the Parker Garden at the Santori Library to see the beautiful work Matthew Bernardi created! Thank you, Matthew, for all of your hard work!
Miriam Meza-Gotto is communications manager for Aurora Public Library.