Aiming to secure funds to support the high school’s greenhouse, Students Against Violating the Earth (SAVE) hosted its seventh annual spring plant sale on May 9 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
According to SAVE advisor Kim Wilson, this sale is the primary fundraiser to fund the propane needed to run the greenhouse.
“This is our biggest fundraiser for [the greenhouse],” Wilson said. “We do this fundraiser, so that all that money that we raise goes back into the program for next year, so we can keep going.”
SAVE officer Anika Emhardt feels the club helps to fundraise while also building bonds with the community.
“It’s a good community event for people to come and buy flowers, and also helps us make connections within the community, too,” Emhardt said. “It is also a good fundraiser for us since we spend a lot of money maintaining the greenhouse through heat throughout the year.”
As for SAVE officer Tori Puente, the community aspect is a huge part of having the sale.
“I have been doing sales for four years, and
I love it. It’s really great to see and connect with the community. [When people] come to buy some plants, they learn about our club,” Puente said.
According to SAVE officer Quincy Canavan, officers have done a lot of watering and taking care of plants, which also includes, “taking off flowers and making them look nicer. We have also planted a bunch of the vegetables.”
“We got a lot of seeds left for this year, so we planted a bunch of those in pots and watered them to make sure that they also grow. It is a lot of prep work and making sure the plants grow,” Canavan said.
According to Puente, recently the club has been working on “upkeeping and maintaining” the plants for sale during their greenhouse growers meetings every Thursday after school.
“What we’ve been doing lately is we take cuttings off of the flowers or previous plants. For big plants, we take cuttings off of them, and then we’ll repot them and grow them there,” Puente said.
According to Canavan, the preparation also includes planning for the day of the plant sale.
“The plan is that we have kids come over, set it up, and then when people come, they can look through the plants, see what we have,” Canavan said. “We will have stuff outside and inside the greenhouse. There’ll be kids walking around helping them and they can come up and buy whatever they want and talk to us about what we do in the greenhouse.”
Wilson said that the sale will also have a varied selection of plants.
“We have hanging pots that are beautiful, all different colored varieties. We have some annuals and also some herbs, like dill, thyme and mint,” Wilson said, “[There are] a bunch of house plants, succulents, jade plants and we have some beautiful anthurium.”