August 23, 2025 – West Bend, Wi – A woman in the Town of Polk has taken her love of butterflies to a new level as Cheryl Lawrenz is on her way to collecting and hatching nearly 200 monarch butterflies this year.
Lawrenz, 66, has been protecting and helping restore the monarch butterfly population the past five years.
She discovered her passion by observing the butterflies flitting around the milkweed.
Lawrenz researched monarch butterflies and how to find caterpillar eggs and when she did, “Oh, my God, my heart just pounded out of me. It was the most exciting feeling,” she said.
Inspired to help the process Lawrenz started transplanting milkweed from surrounding fields and ditches into her backyard where she built a sanctuary for caterpillars.
“So, I picked milkweed every morning, and I’d collect pure rainwater,” said Lawrenz. “I’d wash the milkweed, and cut it, and put it in my habitat. I’ve got a lot of containers that I call my lodge; I fill and refill the milkweed for the caterpillars.”
It takes Lawrenz about an hour or two every morning to care for her sanctuary. “It’s just amazing from a little white dot,” she said about the egg.
The process from egg to caterpillar to beautiful butterfly takes about 30 days. “I find them, I put them in a container, and I watch them eventually come out of that little egg as a tiny caterpillar. I take care of them until I release them in my backyard, in my monarch habitat with the milkweed and a couple of flowers.”
One thing about searching for milkweed though, is that you come across some not so friendly plants. While in a ditch digging milkweed, Lawrenz unfortunately came across a patch of poison ivy.
Though it burned and hurt Lawrenz said it was well worth it. “Oh, my God, I got a ton of babies. It’s just a blessing. I feel so honored every morning, and I just thank my God for letting me still being able to do this.”
