Planting the Seed that Grew into an Earth Day Fundraiser

By the end of last winter, Haley Heaviland, ALB, CCRP, had more office plants than she knew what to do with. Heaviland, who is a Clinical Research Manager in the CTO, was running out of people to gift her plants to, as well as the space to keep them. Fortunately, her colleague in the CTO, Clinical Research Coordinator III Dawn Carini, had an idea: sell the plants to fundraise for Audaxity.

Carini said they had been trying to think of unique fundraising ideas for Earth Day to benefit their team, The Tumor-nators, and a plant sale seemed like the perfect fit.

“We know that folks tend to get burnt out with repetitive events, and by being more creative in our fundraising, we help to ensure that Audaxity stays relevant throughout the many months leading up to the ride,” Carini said.

She and Heaviland got to work. They planted, split, and propagated more garden plants at home and started accepting house plant and pot donations from colleagues. Soon, the operation outgrew their homes and they moved the inventory to the windows in the CTO. From there, it was “go big or go home,” Carini said. They planted as much as they could in hopes that it would grow, even recruiting their families to help on the weekends.

“Neither of us had ever done this before, so we figured we had nothing to lose,” Carini said.

By Earth Day on April 22, the excitement had spread. For the first two hours of the sale, the team was “mobbed by interested buyers faster than we could put the plants out,” Heaviland said. The team sold every single houseplant and almost all of the garden plants during the event, raising more than $2500.

Both teammates were shocked by their colleagues’ interest and by their own gardening abilities. Before the sale was over, people were asking them when the next one would be.

Heaviland said The Tumor-nators are hoping to hold another plant sale and maker’s market  event in the fall because of the overwhelmingly positive feedback. Added Carini, “I don’t think we have a choice, we HAVE to bring it back!”