The Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Parent Teacher Association Equity Project held its second annual Native Plant Sale on Saturday. Over the course of three hours, people flowed into the district’s warehouse, browsing native plants, shrubs and trees for sale.

The PTA Equity Project is a program that helps raise and distribute funds to district schools to improve equity in student experience. 

PTA volunteer Lauren Marquez-Viso said the sale’s purpose –– in addition to fundraising for PEP –– is to address climate change with “natural solutions.”

The sale’s plants came from Will County-based Possibility Place Nursery, which specializes in growing plants native to northeastern Illinois. 

Native plants are important for maintaining biodiversity, building a living landscape for animals and combating climate change by storing greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and conserving water, according to the National Audubon Society. 

The PTA Equity Project sold blue vervain, wild geranium and black-eyed susan, which are all native to northeastern Illinois, on Saturday. 

“We’re also increasing pollinator habitat with native plants throughout the community, (and) educating the public on the importance of native plants,” Marquez-Viso, a District 65 parent and member of the climate action team at Dewey Elementary School, said. “(We’re) making our ecosystem more resilient.”

At the plant sale, Marquez-Viso helped check people out and answered questions. 

She said many of the volunteers were either working with PTAs or were part of the climate action teams at their respective schools. 

PEP began the native plant sale last year. The group recognized there is a large market for plants within the community, Marquez-Viso said. 

She said the organization received more than $20,000 in pre-sale orders and continued to sell their remaining inventory at the in-person sale. 

Chicago resident Kai Joy said he saw the sale on his way to a plant nursery. He said he frequently shops for native plants and stopped at the sale to support the PEP’s cause. 

“I’d rather spend the money here for a cause as opposed to a nursery,” he said.

He said he was particularly interested in the fruiting plants at the sale. 

Evanston teacher Isabelle Nieves, who also stopped by, said she heard about the sale in the city’s newsletter.

Nieves said she doesn’t usually shop for native plants in particular but went to the plant sale with her niece because she loves plants and perennials. The fact that the plants were native was an added benefit for Nieves, she added.

“I like the native plants because they’re home to the Midwestern area,” she said. “I have an easy garden, not too much fuss.”

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