Submitted By: Sara Wolf
Calusa Garden Club of Marco Island – Publicity Chairperson
On Tuesday, November 22, 2021, Calusa Garden Club of Marco Island held a Plant, Thanksgiving Arrangement, and Succulent Dish Garden Sale for the public. The sale was held outdoors at Marco Lutheran Church parking lot. What a success! We collected about $4,544 from our customers who bought plants, beautiful Thanksgiving floral designs, succulent dish gardens, orchids and containers; we had expenses of $1,827; and we made a profit of about $2,717.
Fantastic job by all who contributed! Chairperson Sara Wolf reflected that she thought every Club member who was available on Marco Island contributed to our success by working at least one shift, and that nearly 100% of our Club members participated by making donations of plants and other items for the sale.
Members donated their plants from their yards or cultivated offshoots from their houseplants to sell at the event. We had over 100 plants! The Club conducted a pre-sale workshop on making table centerpieces, which resulted in members contributing about 25 Thanksgiving floral designs to sell. Each floral design was donated: containers as well as the flowers. We had a pre-sale workshop on succulent dish gardens and the Club purchased a flat of succulents to add to the succulents members had collected. The containers were fantastic and the purchasers got fantastic bargains on these popular items. We sold about 25 dish gardens. Members also donated eye-catching gently used containers, which sold out quickly.
Eight high school students from the Key Club of Marco Island Academy volunteered to assist at the sale by helping purchasers take their items to their cars after their purchases. They worked at the holding table and used carts loaned to the sale by our members to transport the plants to the purchasers’ cars.
Special thanks to our subcommittee chairs: Annette Kuhn – cashiers; Monique Doyle – volunteer scheduling; Kimberly Korb Porter – holding table; Marianne Foley – Thanksgiving Arrangements; Sue Oldershaw and Linda Schwoeppe – plants; Linda Colombo – succulent dish gardens; Laura Furlong – containers; and Charlette Roman (friend of the Club) who sold orchids and contributed 50% of her proceeds to the Club. And special thanks to the husbands, sons and male friends who assisted in setting up the tables for the sale and the tents, and to Russ Colombo who figured out a way to display our banner to attract attention to the location on the day of the sale.