Annual plant sale finds success online

WOODLAND — More than 40 students and 24 current and retired Woodland Public Schools employees, led by Woodland High School horticulture teacher Kendra Pearce, worked together to hold their annual plant sale despite the pandemic. The tradition was almost canceled, but Pearce quickly thought to put it online, with only two weeks to make it happen. “Since the start of the school year, the students had spent hours and hours in the greenhouse planting, propagating, and managing their more than a thousand plants,” Pearce said in a news release. The group decided to use InTouch as a payment platform — the same that the district uses to accept meal and Skyward Family Access payments. Though it’s not intended for e-commerce, business manager Stacy Brown helped, along with students, to upload individual photos, descriptions and pricing for 123 unique plant varieties. They sold about 85 percent of what they would in a normal year. For her work, Pearce received an Outstanding Teacher of the Year award for District 8 from Future Farmers of America. “The students were key to make the plant sale possible,” she said. “I truly believe this is the year every agriculture teacher deserves an ‘outstanding’ award, regardless of whether their name is on a plaque or not.”