Working Together for a Better Benton Park

August 14, 2014

Working Together for a Better Benton Park

St. Louis’ Bud Light “Do Good. Have Fun.” project involved nearly 150 people working to establish a butterfly garden in Benton Park and paint murals around the community garden.  Volunteers from Anheuser-Busch, Benton Park and Benton Park West neighborhoods plus Young Friends of Brightside St. Louis joined forces to transform one of the city’s most heavily-traveled intersections, Jefferson and Arsenal, into an attractive and beneficial community resource.

The volunteers planted 1,200 perennials and shrubs including native milkweeds to benefit the threatened migrating Monarch butterfly.  Only a few short hours after the plants went in the ground, a few remaining volunteers watched as our first Monarch fluttered through the newly-planted garden.  Now we will have blooms for many years to benefit butterflies and other important pollinators.

Protecting the community garden from cars traveling on the nearby busy streets led to the installation of barricades around the perimeter of the garden, yet their appearance totally detracted from the beauty of the garden.  Talented local artists, Casey Kasparek and Peat Wollaeger, prepared stencils for the volunteers to paint designs and outdoor scenes on the barriers.  Once unsightly eyesores now are beautiful assets on this corner.

Brightside St. Louis was proud to partner with Keep America Beautiful to do what we all do best – make communities more vibrant, thriving and beautiful.  And our friends at Bud Light make every project more fun.  Special thanks to our long-time partner and Benton Park neighbor, Anheuser-Busch.