Association for Butterflies is pleased to announce the butterfly habitat mini-grant awarded for 2023!

Coldwater Community Center, Coldwater, MI – $400

Each grant awarded is a matching-fund grant and applicants raise funds to meet that match.

Four garden areas were planted with native plants that attract butterflies.

1.  A rain garden adjacent to the building

2.  A brick planter with a small serviceberry tree underplanted with native groundcover.  (Note: the photo shows both the native plants and some annual impatiens we planted to fill in this year until the perennials take hold.)

3.  A small respite garden along the path leading from Coldwater’s Four Corners Park into the Community Center grounds.

4.  A focal point garden in the center of the enclosed brick patio area.

As per our plan, we put up a large butterfly wind chime providing a visual sign of the garden’s purpose.  Our initial plan called for metal wall art depicting butterflies on the side of the building, but ongoing restoration efforts in this area caused us to rethink that plan and add a butterfly themed wind chime instead.  This also helps solve another problem we have in the area, a lot of loud street noise.  It sits directly over the garden on a shepherd’s crook, so we think it’s actually better than adjacent wall art on the building.

We also added a sign identifying AFB as the donor for the garden plants. We were assisted all spring, summer and fall by a dedicated cadre of volunteers, including two volunteers pictured in the photo of the finished garden, from the Coldwater High School Multicultural Club who volunteered six hours EVERY WEEK throughout the whole process and did the bulk of the work along with board members and the Landscape Committee Chair.

The Association for Butterflies mini-grant was awarded to Coldwater Community Center. The grant will create or improve habitat for pollinators and provide for nature and community to come together.

Coldwater Community Center
Coldwater, Michigan 49036

The Coldwater Community Center was founded in 2022 as a non-profit dedicated to restoring the historic home that was the site of our town’s first library, later serving as a family funeral parlor. The mission of the Coldwater Community Center includes education, cultural programming and promoting understanding among people. Our values include sustainability, transformation, inclusion and making connections. (The emphasis on transformation is one of the reasons we wish to highlight butterflies in our programs. Being the former site of a prominent funeral parlor in our town, we want to honor all the memories of loved ones that the community associates with the building using butterflies to symbolize “rebirth.”)

We have a board of directors and five administrative committees, including grounds and programming. The building dates back to the 1850s and is adjacent to Coldwater’s Four Corners Park. We have developed a landscape plan for the exterior with the goals of creating a spot for community respite, education and wildlife conservation. The overall garden plan includes many native and non-invasive ornamental plants that create butterfly habitat. Our program and grounds committees are dedicated to promoting butterfly conservation.