NNNPS Plant Sale and Information Booth at the Strawberry Festival

Gary Chafin: For the second year in a row, our chapter conducted a successful plant sale at the St. Stephen’s Strawberry Festival held in Heathsville on May 25. The Festival is one of the largest community events in the Northern Neck. Six of our members (Nick Ferriter, Jeff Wainscott, Bette Gruben, Lucy Martin, Pat Lust and Pam VanScoy) donated plants; Jeff and Betsy Washington purchased plants from a commercial source, which were sold by Nick and myself. The church held a concurrent plant sale and provided cashier services.

Hundreds of festivalgoers visited the sale, which was located next to an information booth manned by member volunteers. Many customers told us that they came directly to the sale from the booth after getting information about native plants.

The sale supported our goal of acquainting the general public with native plants and encouraging people use them in their home landscapes. Unlike our much largerfall sale where our customers often know about native plants, many people at the festival were new to the idea of planting natives. Although our primary purpose was not to make money, we even made a profit. It was a satisfying project made possible by our generous, hard working volunteers.

Nancy Garvey: It absolutely was a great day. We had so much interest in the booth and our Go Native/Grow Native materials. It seemed like there were people chatting with us almost the entire time. The booth volunteers were Kyle Langford, Jeff Wainscott, Paula Boundy, Susan Titus, Ted Munns and myself. What a great team effort from start to finish!