At the start of second semester, agriculture students
began planting plugs and seedlings for the plant sale. As the
semester continued, students and the greenhouse managers would take
care of the plants by watering them, giving them fertilizer, and
transplanting them when needed. Just about the time that the
greenhouse was getting full from all the growing plants, students at
Olympia were sent home due to coronavirus, making the future plant
sale plans up in the air.
However, Olympia students, FFA alumni, and Mr. Hoffman worked
together to produce one of Olympia’s most successful plant sales
yet! Mr. Hoffman and the greenhouse managers, Rebekah Magee and Noah
Reber, took turns taking care of the plants while remote learning
was in place. Since the FFA chapter could no longer have an
in-person plant sale, Alyssa Casey and Ellen Springer worked
together to create a website to sell the plants on. When asked about
creating the website, Alyssa Casey said, “It was very helpful to
make the site with Ellen. It seemed like a lot of work at first, but
once we both began to work on the site we were able to create it
quickly. It was fun and I’m glad it was a success!”
Customers were able to order plants from the website then go through
a curb-side pick-up process.
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Only the Olympia FFA Alumni and Mr. Hoffman were able
to work the plant sale. They organized orders in advance so they
would have each order ready for its designated pick-up time. There
were only a few instances where they had to substitute certain
plants due to the inventory not being quite right.
To receive their plants, customers pulled up to the
curb, had the plants loaded into their car, and then paid for their
plants.
The alumni that took turns working shifts for the
plant sale included: Gina Schaefer, Michele Ott, Joan Harrison,
Dwayne Hancock, Dawson Banister, Bailey Hoerbert, Molly Schempp,
Beth Fasse, Susan Litwiller, and Monica Rogers.
When asked about the very successful plant sale, Mr.
Hoffman stated, “I’m very grateful for our supportive community that
purchased plants this year. The horticulture class did an amazing
job, especially Rebekah Magee and Noah Reber who served as
greenhouse managers. I’m also very thankful for Alyssa Casey and
Ellen Springer who created the plant sale website.”
[Submitted by Chloe Scroggins, FFA
Media/Marketing Specialist] |