Plant Sale

For five years Athens Drive has had a plant sale that supports the special education classes to help provide extra materials that they need for their classes. This year the sale is led by the special education program and the teachers. With the sale, they are not only selling plants, but they are selling goodies as well, such as bags with seeds and some other packaging items that the students put together. The sale began April 27 during lunch.

The plant sale was started by Jason Hunning, special education teacher, and a few other teachers that worked here in the past. It was put in place for the students in the special education program to earn money for class projects that the students do.

“We don’t really receive a lot of money from the school to do all the activities that we do here in the classroom, so by raising money we can afford to do these activities and have money left over to save for the next activity that we do,” said Hunning.

The process of the plant sale includes educating the special education students with math, packaging and keeping up with their money. It helps them with math by adding up the donations that the people give and counting it up to make sure it is right, and it helps them with packaging because they package the bags of seeds and plants in the case that they go in. The sale is to simply help the students with their skills and their abilities to concentrate on what they are doing.

“I like the whole entire point of the plant sale process because it provides cheap and beautiful green plants for teachers and others to look at,” said Hunning.

Prices for the plant sale go from one to five dollars, depending on the plant case size.

Plant donations received from teachers, students and friends make up the plant sale. Plants that are overgrown, are in bad shape and cannot stand up alone are shown tender love and care from the teachers and students. These plants are then sold as almost brand new plants so that they can earn even more money.

“The goal for the plant sale is not necessarily to earn money, but it is for educational reasons for the students,” said Hunning.

The Athens Drive plant sale led by the special education program gives the students specific ways to spend their time other than just looking at a textbook or listening to a teacher talk. It educates them in many different ways that helps them earn money and socialize with other students around the school as well.