Blooms, butterflies at Allegheny Township business honor late customer

An Allegheny Township salon is paying tribute to a former loyal customer with fondness and flowers.

Employees at Fashions Ahead Salon & Grand Day Spa in Leechburg created a butterfly memorial garden this spring in honor of the late Leonard “Lenny” Rocco Calderone.

Calderone died suddenly Jan. 16. He was 78.

Calderone was a faithful customer known for stopping by the salon every Saturday with donuts in hand for the employees.

“He was a regular at the salon every week and truly lit up any room he walked into,” said Fashions Ahead employee Emily Smith.

Smith served as lead organizer for the grassroots effort to acquire mulch, flowers, butterfly bushes and a garden fountain, all with donations from more than 50 people, most of them salon customers.

Courtesy of Curran Funeral Home

Leonard Rocco “Lenny” Calderone

“Clients enjoy walking on the sidewalk around to the front of the salon to immerse themselves in a relaxing and peaceful environment with butterflies floating all around them,” Smith said.

The project took about five months to complete.

Organizers chose two groups of flowers for planting — nectar plants to attract adult butterflies and caterpillar food plants.

The project’s goal was to select plants that can feed butterflies, specifically monarch butterflies, which are on the endangered list, and encourage them to lay eggs and produce a new generation.

“It was an amazing morning when there were multiple monarchs visiting our garden. It became our goal to truly bring as many monarchs to this area to help this very important pollinator,” Smith said.

Flowers in the garden include zinnias, lavender, clove pink, sunflowers, allium, shasta daisy, dinner plate dahlia and sedum.

Calderone’s two younger sisters, Elizabeth Calderone and Phyllis Collins Calderone, both donated flowers for the garden.

Elizabeth Calderone, of Mount Kisco, N.Y., visits the Vandergrift area several times a year.

“It was so sweet. I was so taken, and it was so unexpected. It was highly emotional,” she said of her first visit to the garden.

After their initial garden visit, both sisters returned to Fashions Ahead the next day and donated three butterfly bushes for planting.

“We wanted to contribute, and we visited again in June. It’s really beautiful, and they’re totally attentive and dedicated to the garden,” Elizabeth Calderone said.

“It’s really a testament to what kind of person my brother was. He was kind and forgiving. He was not judgemental. He was accepting of everyone.”

Smith’s neighbor Rob Fortuna donated a fountain, positioned in the middle of the garden.

“This is where butterflies meet and drink,” Smith said.

Smith said involving Calderone’s sisters in the project was especially touching.

“The first time they walked through the garden, they started tearing up at the memory of their brother and the story why we were dedicating it to him,” Smith said.