NORTHAMPTON – After the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 plant sale, the Northampton Education Foundation (NEF) is bringing back its annual plant sale on May 8 at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School for its 24th year.

NEF Book Fund Coordinator Amy Levine said NEF initially took over the plant sale from another organization back in 2005.

“It began by a fundraising group who called themselves SOS, which started as Save our Schools in an era of budget cuts and later it became Support our Schools, and then they merged with NEF in 2005 and took over their responsibilities so we could have one fundraising group in Northampton,” she said.

Longtime board member Mandy Gerry said she was excited to see the sale back in 2021.

“We are very excited. We have two big spring events between the plant sale and the spelling bee, and last year we had to cancel both events, which was heartbreaking. They are really fun for the community, they generate goodwill, they get the word out about what NEF does, so it is really fun to be able to do it,” she said.

Gerry added that most of the sale’s plants come from donations.

“That is ongoing, there are three locations for plant drop offs, basically people can bring their plants for donation to any of the locations. We also welcome the night before the plant sale when we are setting up the sale and a lot of people bring their plants then,” she said.

Plant donations can be dropped off at 373 N. Farms Rd. in Florence, 36 Wilson Ave., and 31 Forbes Ave. in Northampton before May 7 and donations can also be dropped off at Smith Vocational High School from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on May 7.

Levine said that NEF accepts all kinds of plant donations.

“We get a lot of perennial divisions, but also some trees, shrubs, houseplants and veggie starts, so we welcome all kinds of plants and we do not turn any plants away,” she said.

People interested in making a purchase ahead of the sale can log onto go.rallyup.com/nef and then pick up the plants curbside during the sale.

Along with the sale, NEF will be hosting a raffle with two prizes up for grabs.

“We have a raffle every year that will take place at the plant sale, but we are selling raffle tickets online to reach people during the pandemic. There are two raffles, one is for a homemade quilt and the other for a garden bench with a trellis that was made partly by Smith Vocational students,” Levine said.

The entire sale is run through volunteer work and Gerry said this year Northampton High School’s Key Club will be helping.

"All of our help is volunteer help; we get tons of volunteer help from the community. This year Northampton High School’s Key Club is going to volunteer so they will be there Friday evening and Saturday,” she said.

With this year’s warmer weather, Levine said many people are itching to start gardening.

“I think this spring, especially with the warmer weather in general, we had a warmer March than usual, and we had some great days in April, has people excited, especially the gardeners,” she said.

All funds raised by the sale will go toward NEF’s Book Fund, which allows teachers and librarians across Northampton Public Schools to purchase books for their students.

“All of it goes to our book fund, which funds all of Northampton’s public schools. It is divided among all the schools on a per capita basis, and with Smith Voc. it is based on the number of Northampton residents there. Teachers or librarians can apply for the money and we transfer it to them into the fall,” Levine said.

Despite COVID-19 guidelines changing ahead of the event, NEF will still require masks, social distancing and will provide masks and hand sanitizer for people to use if necessary.