I fully admit it, I’m one of those people who can’t stand to throw away a plant that has any life in it. Whether it’s a houseplant on its last legs, an offshoot that I’ve rooted in water, or a perennial that needs dividing, I just can’t throw it away, even in the compost bin.
For years, I found an outlet for my plants by having a plant sale. Initially, I got the idea from a magazine and billed it as a plant exchange, inviting all my friends and neighbors that were into gardening. But then I realized that I don’t need MORE plants, so even though it was fun to try others’ varieties, I decided to just give the plants away.
Last year, I held a plant sale at my house and then again at the church. I was raising funds to rebuild the garden on the 5th street side of the church, my hope is to have a community garden there one day. What was interesting to me when I sold plants at my house to friends and neighbors, their donations to the church were very generous. When I held it at the church, open to the community, people paid the asking price but rarely more. That taught me about the value of a personal connection while fundraising.
This year, I proposed the idea of a plant sale to Mary Beth at Deviled Eggery, knowing that she had a community gathering place in a central location and would support a fundraiser for Una Vida. In addition to the plant sale, Mary Beth added many activities for kids, which made it much more attractive to families and not just gardeners.
It lent a whole new “vibe” to the sale, to have kids running around, multiple people wearing flower crowns, Mary Beth encouraging scarecrow-wear, and people connecting not only over their love of gardening, but in building community.
As usual, there was a lot of learning in the process. Since not everyone is deeply interested in gardening, I’ll recap the learning of dividing plants and growing seedlings in a separate blog. One of the things I will say about signage, though, is that the arrangement of tomato plants next to this post was totally inspired, even if accidental. I had so many varieties that it would have been a challenge to lay out the information signs horizontally, but it worked well
to have them lined up the post like this. I literally heard one woman read the sign, pick a variety based on what the tomato was best for (sauce, salad, sandwiches, etc.) and direct her husband to choose those varieties. It’s too bad that some of the tomatoes lost their tags, so in a few cases we didn’t know which variety was which!
In this blog, I’ll cover the highlights of the event itself.
First of all, volunteers help!!! Mary Beth and Eric did a great job preparing the space, others in the network lent tables, made flyers and signs, helped at the event, or volunteered to help with activities. This definitely illustrated my farming family’s saying “many hands make light work”, whether it was in transporting plants, setting up, cleaning up, or making sure things ran smoothly during the event.
Secondly, the idea of having activities for kids was brilliant! Not having little kids any more myself, that type of thing was not on my radar screen, but it definitely attracted more families.
As an added bonus, since the kids were busy with activities, it gave the adults more time to shop or just relax, which was helpful to the bottom line and provided parents a much-needed break. The activities were to paint a rock, play chicken bingo, make a flower crown, dress up like a scarecrow and take a selfie, bring a picnic, and plant seeds. It was so gratifying to see little kids doing all these things.
One of the learnings was to double-check the photos in the chicken bingo are still in the supply of chicken-painted rocks to hide, as there were some kids searching for something that didn’t exist. It also really helped to have the “hiders” available later in the day, to help kids who were struggling to find specific rocks.
People shared their passion, whether it was Catherine with her flower crowns, Mary Beth encouraging people to dress up, me answering plant questions, or Sarah helping the little kids, there was a lot of positive energy as a result.
One of the things I learned, a bit late in the day, was the value of being vocal about our causes. Kai Lancaster, one of the avid supporters of Una Vida, has the unique skill of being able to advocate in a way that catches people’s attention. She was only able to attend the end of the event due to a family obligation, but she made the most of her time by asking people “Have you heard of Una Vida?” and then going on to educate people about the good they do in the community. I regret that we didn’t have someone doing that throughout the event, because it was much more effective than my subtle signage.
The advertising for the event definitely went up a whole bunch of notches. First of all, we had a flyer, created by Milagros and amended by Mary Beth to include all the family activities. The only challenge was that while the dark green background made it visually appealing, when printed it took a lot of ink! However, having this ready in advance meant I could hand it out at church, and several people remembered to come based on having a hard copy. We posted a few weeks in advance on social media, and I noticed that people were sharing the post. Then the day before and the day of the event several of us posted again, and I think that drove a bunch more traffic. Overall, we had record attendance with close to 100 attendees and the event made over $1000 for Una Vida. I had many people asking me whether we were going to do this again, so I think next year it will be even more successful. But one of the most valuable things gained was the feeling of community, the goodwill generated, and the number of people who now know about Deviled Eggery and Una Vida that wouldn’t otherwise. Those benefits will pay off for years to come.
I’m sure there were others that helped make this event a success, but I’d like to thank the following:
Mary Beth and Eric, for their work preparing the space and hosting the event. This was a ton of work for many weeks in advance.
Event volunteers include Mandy who ran the checkout, Catherine who prepared and hosted flower crown making, my niece Sarah and her friend Anthony who helped with kid’s events, and Ashleigh, Nancy, and Sallie who helped make things run smoothly.
Milagros for making the flyer and lending us 4 tables even though she couldn’t attend in person.
My friend Fran Wilson who donated plants and helped set-up and clean-up and find homes for leftover plants.
The afore-mentioned Kai, who helped clean-up, find homes for leftover plants, and provided Una Vida information to attendees.
Great event, Lamar, your energy and skills are doing so much good for your community! <3