McGrew Family Butterfly Garden Dedication, Speakers: Jim Mechler, Dean Paige Fields, John McGrew, Chip Taylor

BEES, BUTTERFLIES AND hummingbirds have a new hot spot on the Hill, thanks to John McGrew, a longtime Lawrence real-estate developer who led the metamorphosis of a section of Capitol Federal Hall’s lush grounds into a native-plant habitat for our prairie’s pollinators.

The McGrew Family Butterfly Garden, which was planted May 10 by a group of volunteers from the School of Business, KU Endowment, Facilities Planning & Development, and the Douglas County Extension Master Gardeners, has special meaning for McGrew. He hopes that the garden will not only welcome bees, butterflies and other wildlife, but also encourage students, faculty and staff to step away from their computers and enjoy the great outdoors.

McGrew Family Butterfly Garden Dedication, Speakers: Jim Mechler, Dean Paige Fields, John McGrew, Chip Taylor

“Too many of us, especially our children, are spending too much time on screens and not enough time outside,” says McGrew, b’60, who founded Outside for a Better Inside, a Lawrence-based nonprofit group that has built more than 15 butterfly gardens at local elementary schools.

For the business of school’s garden, McGree enlisted the help of Monarch Watch Director Chip Taylor. “These plants will all be native plants,” Taylor says of the nearly 1,200 flora used. “They’ll all be very attractive to butterflies and other pollinators.”
And surely appealing to Jayhawks.

McGrew Family Butterfly Garden Dedication, Speakers: Jim Mechler, Dean Paige Fields, John McGrew, Chip Taylor