In the North greenhouse, junior Leanna Philips tends to her plants with her fellow Students Against Violations of the Environment members who grow and sell herbs to staff in order to raise money for new gardening equipment. By planting, selling and delivering herbs such as dill, basil and cilantro, SAVE provides opportunities like this to teach students how to have a green thumb. The herbs being grown in SAVE’s greenhouse were planted in October and ready for sale by March.
As a member, Philips is busy protecting the environment and inspiring the community to help save the ecosystem just as SAVE club aspired to do. Additionally, Phillips believes that helping the environment aligns with her own personal goals.
“Our goals are to protect the environment and conserve our natural resources on this Earth,” Phillips said. “I hope to contribute in any way I can, to make a difference and promote sustainability.”
Guiding students through gardening, the goal setter and SAVE club adviser Christopher Skowronski strives to help students by guiding them through the planting and selling process.
“We started kind of like mid fall,” Skowronski said. “It gets super hot in the green house in the summertime, there isn’t great air conditioning there. Usually by October we planted different herbs like basil, dill, cilantro and also some succulents.”
Purchasing fresh herbs like basil and dill at the herb sale, encouraged Jill Davenport to grow her own herb garden. SAVE club inspires individuals such as counselor Jill Davenport to achieve more in the garden in a shorter amount of time.
“It inspired me to slowly start an herb garden,” Davenport said. “Over time they’ll have varieties of what they’re selling, and I’ll just keep buying them and increase my herb garden.”
While Davenport improves her own garden from the sale, SAVE club is using their profits to expand and upgrade its equipment. Along with this, they still hope to host more sales and grow as a team.
“We plan to have an herb sale to purchase another plant shelf with LEDs in order to grow more plants,” Phillips said.
Continuing to buy herbs and supporting the club, Davenport looks fondly on her experiences buying from the sale and creating a positive impact on her personal life.
“They kind of gift wrapped this idea of this garden that I haven’t taken the time to do,” Davenport said. “They’ve helped me grow as a person, to be a part of the environment and doing more planting. I would probably buy any of the plants that they were selling.”
Although selling to only staff now, SAVE club hopes to expand their market. With the intention of selling outside of North in the future, Skowronski believes they can reach out to the community, starting with the police department.
“The ultimate goal is to set up something where we can sell them at the Farmers Market,” Skowronski said. “I know the Grosse Pointe Woods Police Station has something in the front area [where] they have a Mother’s Day flower sale and there are some tables set up with herbs and other vegetables to sell. I would like to have a table set up where we can have all of our herbs there.”
