Hi Everyone, 

I hope everyone is doing well. During my volunteer experience, my classmate Sheryl and I were working during different service shifts associated with the mission statement from the Georgia Native Plant Society. For my most recent update, I volunteered on Friday morning with the Atlanta Trees from 9 am-3 pm. This volunteer project focused on sorting, organizing, and moving Native Plants for their plant sale held at the Carter Center for the following day. Additionally, while I was volunteering there was a group of 8-9 employees from Delta Airlines who were also volunteering and a few other college students with us. Our group had roughly 20 volunteers plus 5-6 Atlanta Trees workers.  

During this project, I arrived at the Carter Center around 7:45 am and I signed in with the coordinator for my shift. Then, we began unloading several native plants from a large truck to the parking lot. This consisted of us sorting the plants into several categories in the parking lot. We unloaded 3 trucks of different native plant species. There were printed label signs for each species, and we lined our plants up one by one into each category. We had over 30 categories of plants sorted. These pants consisted of flower pots, native trees, and seeds. After moving all of the plants, we had to organize their plants into different categories for purchases. This included adding a specific color of duck tape to each group of native plants. This would determine the price each group would be sold for. This consisted of us cutting and pasting a piece of duck tape onto each flower pant. Afterward, we organized signs and displays for each plant to be added in front of each plant species. We cleaned up each flower pot that may had leaves or trash inside each pot to make each area look neat and organized. 

After completing this project, it was nice to see how this empty parking lot looked very organized and became a learning classroom. As we were moving the signs, I was able to learn more about each plant we were displaying to sell. Each description stated 2 fun facts about each plant, the prime time to grow (April to November) or (June-August), and how long it would take to fully blossom. I enjoyed speaking with the other volunteers as well and I learned that the Delta Employees have a proud connection with Atlanta Trees and that they normally volunteer with them often. The other 2 students I met went to Emory University and they were also volunteering for one of their academic class as well. They Emory students completed the second shift with me as well and I ate the lunch I brought with them inside the Carter Center during our break. The Delta Employees left after the first shift and there were new volunteers with us during the second shift. Overall, this was a great volunteering experience and I’m glad I was able to expand my knowledge of beginning to grow native plants and making them more available for people to buy and grow.