Former Strip Club Transforming Into Butterfly Sanctuary

KALAMAZOO (WWJ/AP) - Volunteers in southwestern Michigan are working to turn the former site of a strip club into a butterfly sanctuary.

The group planted milkweed, shrubs, perennials and other plants Thursday in hopes of attracting Monarch butterflies and other insects to an area that was once filled with scantily clad women and dark shadows in the night.

The 500-square-foot site is located between a Kalamazoo parking lot that used to be site of a Deja Vu strip club and adjacent to a former adult bookstore, where a credit union opened in February. The strip club relocated in 2005 and the building that housed it was demolished with hopes for redevelopment.

Dave Wendling, president of Wild Ones Kalamazoo Area Chapter, told Mlive.com that organizers expect the plants to attract the butterflies to the site. He said volunteers won't be placing caterpillars or butterflies at the garden.

The site is expected to be registered as a Monarch waystation, a place that provides milkweeds, nectar and shelter for migrating butterflies.

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