The Friends School of Minnesota Plant Sale is the biggest plant sale in MN, maybe the midwest, and possibly the entire country. If you’ve been to it, you know it is quite an amazing venture. If you haven’t, you need to be a part of this amazing experience.
Yet the size of the sale is not the thing that stands out for me. The palpable sense of collective effort and the feeling of a community coming together in support of the school is what fills me with awe each spring.
Over thirteen hundred volunteers, hundreds of them current and past FSMN family members, give the gift of time and energy to help produce this regionally known and much anticipated fundraising event.
Some volunteers contribute a single shift during the sale itself. Other volunteers have grown into leadership roles during the sale, taking on added responsibilities, multiple shifts, and attending planning meetings in the lead up to the sale. And still other volunteers have become pillars of the plant sale effort, giving over their entire weekend to the sale and attending organizational meetings throughout the year. Every level of volunteerism is integral to the success of the plant sale.
Family and friends of students at FSMN and our faculty and staff are not the only ones who participate in this amazing community effort. All of our middle school students spend a couple days before the sale opens preparing plants for sale and then working a portion of the first day of the sale.
When a community comes together, great things happen. Our annual plant sale is just one example of this at FSMN. I am so proud to be a part of a community with the capacity to come together and work toward common goals.
