Fun things we did to raise money for the garden!
As you might expect, it takes quite a bit of money to build and maintain a garden. We were fortunate enough to receive several grants which helped us fill the garden with plants, trees, shrubs, vegetables, and “hardware” (things like tools, wheelbarrows, raised beds, etc). We were also very lucky to have the support of many friends and agencies within our community, so we had lots of items (and much time) donated from those who had the same vision as we did -to get kids out in nature and learning in the garden. I’ve donated a whole page to honor those people/agencies who have played a vital role in the development and maintenance of the garden. You can find it HERE.
Even with grants, donations, and generosity of friends, we still had expenses that were not covered (things we wanted to do with kids in the garden, such as painting rocks, developing a water wall, buying the supplies for our art teacher to make a beautiful 4 seasons painting leading into our learning lab, and buying items our grants would not cover, etc). That’s where the fundraising came in.
Some of our fundraisers were…
- planting spring bulbs
- paying $1 for out-of-uniform days (wearing Halloween costumes, or hats, or having a twin day).
- We also sold items for Valentine’s Day fundraiser.
By far our most successful fundraiser was the Mothers Day sale
which took place the first week of May for 4 years. During this sale, we sold items for Mom (flower pens, jewelry, scarfs, flowers in mugs, perfume, etc), but also lots of stuff for the kids (stuffed animals, squishy bags, toys, special pencils/pens, etc). I also had the kids collect seeds from our very own garden and we sold sunflower, marigold, and zinnia seeds. The first year we had the sale, we sold out of every single item we had! Each year it got larger and larger, and each year we raised more and more money!
