Girl Scout Troop 15104 leader Jessie Ward, left, helps Shepherdstown Elementary School second grader Cordelia Matthews break down a box, while Shepherdstown Elementary School first grader Josephine Ward, center left, and homeschool first grader Emilia Honaker watch, by the Shepherdstown Public Library on Tuesday evening. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — About half of Girl Scout Troop 15104 gathered together around one of The Shepherdstown Public Library’s parking lot islands on Tuesday evening, ready to prepare the ground for planting a Monarch Waystation.

The troop’s leader, Jessie Ward, said she got the idea for the project from talking with Peggy Bowers, who leads the Garden Stewards — a group that focuses on using native plants to landscape the grounds around the library.

“I’m the children’s librarian. Last summer, I said something to Peggy, who’s in charge of the gardens here, about how we should put a Monarch Waystation here,” Ward said. “She said that they thought about doing it, but thought it would be a great project for a Girl Scout troop. And I said, ‘I have one of those!’

“When we sold cookies this year, we raised money for this project,” Ward said of the Girl Scout cookie selling season, which just ended for the troop this past week. “The majority of the proceeds are going towards these supplies — the soil, the mulch, the plants, the seeds — we’re going to start some from seed.

“Today, we’re laying down the cardboard, soaking it and covering it with a soil mix that has mushroom in it. It’s nice and rich, for the plants that we’re going to be putting in here in a couple of months,” Ward said, explaining that stapling down the cardboard into the ground will help kill most of the grass underneath it. “Then, the cardboard and the dead grass will become a mulch and make the soil richer.”

Shepherdstown resident Yvonne Cunningham, center, helps her daughter, Shepherdstown Elementary School kindergartner Clare Cunningham, hammer a staple into the ground, as Shepherdstown Elementary School second grader Kairi Cottrill looks on at the Shepherdstown Public Library on Tuesday. Tabitha Johnston

This will be an ongoing project for the troop, which they hope to expand over a large portion of the parking lot island. Ward said she plans on applying for grant funding in the future, to ensure her troop has no trouble maintaining the Monarch Waystation for many years to come.

According to Ward, after preparation of the ground is complete, Troop 15104 will pick out plants for the project from a carefully curated list.

“There’s a Monarch Waystation website with a list of five pages of plants for Monarch Waystations, and I also got a list of native plants that Potomac Farms has. So, I went through and compared the lists,” Ward said. “There are some on the waystation list that are not native, which I immediately ruled out, but then I looked back and realized that a couple of them are really beneficial and bloom late into the season, which could be good for the monarch butterflies. So, we will consider using those.

“Our list is mostly native plants, but there are a couple of non-natives in there,” Ward said. “I looked at how tall they grow, how wide they spread and when they bloom. I chose the plants based on that — I didn’t want anything too big, but I also want something blooming as much as I can, to help the pollinators.”

For Shepherdstown resident Yvonne Cunningham, projects like this one are part of the reason why she recently signed her daughter Clare up to join the troop.

Girl Scout Troop 15104 members stand on top of a pile of soil, before spreading it out to prepare the ground for the creation of a Monarch Waystation at the Shepherdstown Public Library on Tuesday. Pictured, from left, are Shepherdstown Elementary School second grader Kairi Cottrill, Shepherdstown Elementary School kindergartner Clare Cunningham, homeschool first grader Emilia Honaker, Shepherdstown Elementary School first grader Josephine Ward and Shepherdstown Elementary School second grader Cordelia Matthews. Tabitha Johnston

“The nature aspect of Girl Scouts is right up her alley — I knew she would enjoy the hikes and the cookie sales,” Cunningham, who was a Girl Scout herself, said. “Achieving goals, earning badges, getting to wear the uniform is something she didn’t have before, and the sisterhood aspect of it is really cool. I hope she learns a lot from it and the Girl Scout values to be confident and outgoing.”

Troop 15104 also completed a service project on Monday night, donating boxes of Girl Scout cookies to Shepherdstown Shares Food Pantry. Most of the boxes were from community members, who elected to donate Girl Scout cookies to Shepherdstown Shares, after purchasing them at the troop’s sales booth. Enough boxes were donated to the pantry, to ensure every customer will receive a box this spring.

Girl Scout Troop 15104 cover the wet cardboard with mushroom-enriched soil beside the Shepherdstown Public Library on Tuesday evening. Tabitha Johnston