Every spring, Zoe Ronnau is one of more than two million Girl Scouts who sell cookies.
Since her earliest days in kindergarten at Lee Elementary, Zoe has always been a Girl Scout and perhaps has sold more Girl Scout Cookies than any other scout in America.
As a graduating senior at Los Alamitos High School, Zoe has finally reached the pinnacle of Girl Scouting, seeking her Gold Award, which is the Girl Scout equivalent to a Boy Scout “Eagle Scout”.
We told her story three months ago and we follow up this week to let our readers know that Zoe has, as promised, constructed a beautiful butterfly garden at Lee Elementary School in Rossmoor.
Zoe chose to build a preservation habitat to protect the Monarch butterfly which surprisingly is nearly extinct in California to complete her Gold Scout Gold Award (the female equivalent to an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts.
“So basically, I’m making a butterfly garden to help endangered monarchs recently in the past few years put on the endangered species list. This butterfly garden will help preserve them and also kind of help educate people on preserving their life and the importance of them in nature,” said Zoe in the original story.
In more than a decade of service, Zoe has sold over 25,000 boxes of cookies throughout her career in the Girl Scouts. That’s approximately one-half a ton of Thin Mints, Lemonades, etc.
“Basically, there’s an existing vegetable garden (at Lee Elementary) that I actually helped to build, once upon a time years and years ago,” said Zoe. All those many years ago, little Zoe helped build the garden that still stands on the site.
“I just thought it sounded like we have a plan is to have flowers and plants that like are specifically beneficial to the butterfly. The Monarch specifically, and then I’ll have a few signposts that kind of go through the path of it that educate people on their lifecycle, and their endangerment and the purpose behind the garden and all that.
The technical term is a “butterfly pollinator garden,” but most people just say butterfly garden.
Estimates say that the population of Monarch butterflies in coastal California has dropped from 148,000 in late 2017 to just 20,456 at the end of 2018.
Rest easier because Zoe’s new butterfly paradise at Lee Elementary is now complete and was officially dedicated in April.
“The garden officially debuted April 25 at Lee Elementary Schools Open House and was also part of the Rossmoor Women’s Garden Tour this past Sunday, May 19, said Elizabeth Ronnau, Zoe’s mom.
“The school asked Zoe to come be the garden host for the evening, and it was so rewarding to see how excited the students were to share the garden with their parents,” she said. “We have already had some caterpillars appear, eat a lot of milkweed, make their chrysalis and then emerge as a Monarch. Incredible to see the whole cycle,” she said.
Zoe had a lot of help not only from volunteers but also support from businesses via donated or discounted supplies. Key contributors were:
• SiteOne Landscape Supply.
• Devil Mountain Nursery.
• National Wildlife Refuge in Seal Beach (Ted and Jeri Nowell).
• OC Landfill free mulch program.
Zoe said she is “super proud” of what she accomplished, as she should be.
The Girl Scouts of America is expected soon to convey to Gold Badge, the organization’s highest on Zoe soon.