Butterflies are “flowers that fly and all but sing,” wrote Robert Frost, among many poets and artists over the centuries enthralled by these familiar colorful summer visitors to parks and backyard gardens.

They also captured the imagination of 13-year-old Girl Scout Kelly Young of Lower Makefield who was looking for ideas for her Silver Award project this summer. The Silver Award, for sixth-to-eighth graders, follows the Bronze Award Kelly earned at the age of 10.

For their Silver Award, girls must decide on an issue or project they care about and must identify a need for such a project in the local community. Kelly chose to create a butterfly presentation at Silver Lake Nature Center in Bristol.

It was a natural fit; she liked butterflies, it was science-related and science was her favorite subject at school, and she was excited at the prospect of teaching young kids something new about butterflies.

To start with, a formal proposal was submitted for approval to Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania. It took five hours to complete the paperwork; a portent perhaps of the hard work and long hours to come before the project’s completion.

Next, Kelly put together her team for the project. According to the rules, the team may include other scouts, but must also include non-girl scouts as well.

Kelly chose her friends Mackenzie and Christie, who are not in the Scouts, and Julia, a scout who had previously earned her own Silver Award.

Kelly’s 10-year-old sister Amy, also a Scout, became the team’s assistant. Kelly’s mother Michelle Young (father Ray Young is an information technology specialist) said that a minimum of 50 hours must be spent on the project to earn a Silver Award, but she believes that altogether the team spent more than 100 hours since they began in early May.

“I watched this project unfold from the beginning and there were many good learning experiences for Kelly and the team.” Paperwork was the first hurdle, then organizing a team of volunteers, working with them and directing them, keeping meetings and work schedules on track, seeking donations and managing a budget.

“Kelly’s project had other challenges, such as working with nature which does not always do what you think it will or want it to do and keeping living creatures alive and in good health. Finally, presenting to and working with children, coming up with something educational but fun and trying to keep the attention of a large group of kids outside on a very hot uncomfortable day.”

Monarch caterpillars were ordered from Monarch Watch and Painted Lady caterpillars from Insect Lore, two organizations devoted to the conservation of butterfly populations and to helping those interested in rearing them.

The Painted Lady caterpillars arrived first, already supplied with their own food and habitats. A package of Monarch caterpillars arrived on Kelly’s doorstep a few days later, but despite her strict attention to the care instructions they slowly died off. Monarch Watch acknowledged there had been a shipping problem and mailed another shipment at no charge.

Kelly’s advisor on the project, Jenn Bilger, Coordinator of Volunteers and Summer Camp Director at Silver Lake, said it was thought to be the nature center’s first Monarch Watch program and it really brought home to the summer campers the scope of the Monarch migration.

“Kelly did an amazing job raising the Monarchs, as well as designing and leading a program for our campers that involved craft, game, interpretive walks, and Monarch search for eggs and caterpillars; she kept the campers engaged and learning the whole program,” she said.

A test presentation in front of the team’s families and friends helped Kelly fine tune the first presentation at the nature center in late July, which included hands-on activities for an enthusiastic audience of 14 counselors and campers and the release of the Painted Lady butterflies.

“This was very exciting,” said Kelly. “Afterwards, we continued raising the Monarch caterpillars. It was hard work keeping a fresh supply of milkweed available. I had to hike the Delaware Canal Path with my family a couple of times to clip the extra milkweed.”

A group of 17 counselors and campers attended the second presentation at the nature center.

“On the morning of the presentation, two of our butterflies came out of their chrysalis. I was able to videotape one of them.”

Other butterflies were tagged and released into the center’s award-winning Butterfly Garden, more properly known as the Pollinator Garden.

“I felt so proud that we were able to release multiple butterflies into the wild.”

The tags make it possible for Kelly’s butterflies to be identified and their migration tracked by Monarch Watch in the coming months. She completed the final paperwork ahead of schedule immediately before the new school year began and an official award presentation is expected sometime in the fall.

This month Kelly is entering eighth grade at William Penn Middle School in Lower Makefield. She has been a competitive swimmer since the age of seven, swims two hours a day four days a week at Trihampton YMCA and is a member of Lower Makefield’s swim team.

Acting is another passion; she a member of the group Acting Naturally.

PHOTO CAP: Kelly Young in the butterfly garden she created at Silver Lake Nature Center in Bristol.