Plants at Work Raises Nearly $200,000

Interior industry marketing initiative Plants at Work collected 70 new pledges for a total of $186,965 at the recent Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition (TPIE) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Now, with a total of $300,000 pledged for the next three years, Plants at Work needs $500,000 to $700,000 by the end of February to continue. The goal is to raise $1 million to fund industry marketing activities.

“We raised more than $800,000 at the start of the campaign, which helped us to achieve enormous successes during the first three years,” says McRae Anderson, marketing director for Plants at Work. “However, this budget term closes at the end of March, and without new pledges and a significant number of pledge renewals, we won’t be able to continue the program past March 2004. So, now we dream again.”

The Plants at Work fund-raising committee hit the floor at TPIE to educate show exhibitors and attendees about the campaign and gather new pledges and renewals.

Plants at Work also gave away a $500 Best Buy gift certificate, which new pledgers were eligible for – Rachel Tippit of Driftwood Gardens was the winner. Interior Business magazine, John Mini and Joel Pesapane were sponsors of this gift certificate.

Industry consultant Linnaea Newman headed up one of four fund-raising teams that brought in the most pledges at TPIE – more than $55,000. Other team leaders who donated time at TPIE to fund-raising were John Mini of John Mini Indoor Landscapes, Vicky Cate of Evergreen Interiors and Joel Pesapane of Growing Green.

You can contact the team leader of your choice to make your pledge: Vicky@evergreeninteriors.net (Vicky Cate), linnaea@frontiernet.net (Linnaea Newman), johnmini@johnmini.com (John Mini) or growgreen@primary.net (Joel Pespane). Become a Plants at Work donor today by renewing your pledge online at either www.alca.org or www.plantsatwork.org.

The author is editor of Interior Business magazine and can be reached at acybulski@interiorbusinessonline.com.