For the second consecutive year in a row, Yelm High School’s FFA Plant Sale set a new record during its two-day event on Friday, April 28, and Saturday, April 29.
This year’s event raised $28,084, which surpassed the previous record of just over $25,000 last year.
Matt Mounts, the FFA advisor and greenhouse teacher at YHS, said the club broke the record for its overall total and the day one record total as over $20,000 was raised in the first two hours of the event.
“I am sure it would have continued at that rate if we had the inventory to support it. The greenhouses were packed and I’m not sure if we could’ve fit very many more plants inside,” Mounts said. “Our traffic stayed pretty steady all day. Saturday morning was very busy, but with limited inventory, we sold out before noon.”
The 2023 sale was Mounts’ first year in charge of the event. The effort and the support throughout the event brought the work that goes into the sale into new perspective.
“Students stepped up and took ownership in the process,” Mounts said. “The night before the plant sale, I had a crew who came in voluntarily to sweep up every speck of dirt, check every plant and make sure everything was ready to go. We were out in the greenhouse until 8 p.m. and to see the pride and thoroughness that each one of them took to make sure that it was ready for the next day made the time all worth it.”
One hundred students showed up on the day of the plant sale to volunteer, Mounts said, which was a humbling experience. Many of the students that showed up to help weren’t in the greenhouse class, which he said proves Yelm has outstanding students and a supportive community.
Mounts also noted there were a number of challenges leading up to this year’s sale.
“The weather made managing the greenhouse a more difficult task. The lack of sunshine forced us to increase the temperature in the greenhouse, which led to a higher humidity,” he said. “That means great growth for the plants, but also creates a perfect environment for pests.”
Mounts said this year proved to be a “great learning experience” for him and his students through the “never ending” task of looking for, and identifying different growth and peat issues, while deciding on how to use different prevention methods.
Following the event, Mounts said event organizers received nothing but positive feedback from their customers. The class will run through a debrief to go through that information. They’ll also discuss a list of areas the class feels they can improve on next year.
“I feel like it is a positive exercise for all of them to realize that reflecting on such a large event is how you maintain its quality,” Mounts said. “We will celebrate our successes and come up with a plan on our improvements.”
The class will also evaluate inventory to find out how quickly different items sold out to potentially adjust their numbers for next year and will also discuss new items to include in the sale.
Following this year’s success, Mounts said he has a list of people who deserve a thank you for their involvement in the event.
“This event takes you away from home an awful lot between January and the plant sale. My wife was always supportive of me going into the greenhouse and doing what needed to be done in order to have a quality event,” Mounts said. “I also work with a pretty darn awesome group of teachers. They were very supportive to water and care for plants on the weekends when I couldn’t be there. I will definitely be handing out some special thank yous to those who stayed extra hours and monitored things on plant sale day. I could not have done it without them.”
He also expressed appreciation for all of the volunteers who served as cashiers during the event.
“Over $28,000 worth of business and our tills were spot on, not a penny off,” Mounts said. “That’s pretty impressive when it’s 100% student run and things balance out perfectly with that type of volume.”
