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 Annual Plant Sales
The Freedom Bands have a tradition of annual plant sales which generate funds to assist and enhance the band program. Many in the Franklin community look forward to the opportunity to buy their seasonal plants from a band student. For each sale, students take orders and collect money for a period of about two weeks, turning in order forms (with money collected) as often as desired. About a week after the end of order-taking, plants are delivered to FMS directly from a local grower. Pickup times are scheduled after school hours for two afternoons, or a Friday afternoon and part of a Saturday. Parents pick up sales made by their child and deliver them to customers immediately. At pickup time, all original order forms are returned to the student for accurate delivery of plants. Timely delivery of plants by the student families is key to happy customers and continued successful plant sales. Students must confirm family support for sales and delivery before taking orders!
Dates and details for each plant sale will be posted here once determined, and an order form will be available for downloading. Those who do not have a Freedom band student from whom to order may contact a band director to place their order, or print out and mail in an order form and payment, as long as it is received by the close date of the sale.
Students are encouraged to participate in the plant sales by incentives which reward them at increasing levels for sales made. These incentives may include pizza parties, banana split parties, drawings for prizes, outings to skate, play laser tag, see a movie, or other activity, or even cash rebates.
Parent volunteer help is needed to implement each successful plant sale, and any contribution of parental time and talent is appreciated. Parent help makes it possible for the band directors to remain focused on the teaching of music, not on fundraising. Some of the tasks parents may assist with are:
- Planning and implementing sales incentives to be offered to students at the start of each sale. (This is a particularly needed area, as the band directors often do not have the time to implement rewards in as timely a manner as necessary to effectively reward students for their efforts.)
- Sales publicity, both in the community and in band classes, encouraging students to make sales
- Preparing and copying order forms for distribution
- Logging order details into an Excel spreadsheet for tallying
- Counting and logging money
- On delivery day, organizing plants for pickup after school hours
- Staffing of pickup times – greeting families, assisting each family in picking up the correct order, and marking off orders as they leave
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Mums and Pansies – September
Order forms for potted mums in two sizes and a variety of colors and flats of pansies in various colors are distributed in September and orders taken for approximately two weeks. Delivery of plants typically takes place around the last week of September.
FALL 2010 SALE STARTS FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 10 - order forms will be handed out in classes. Mums: 2 sizes - 8" for $7.00 and 10" for $15.00, in five colors - yellow, burgundy-red, shades of pink, bronze and white. Pansies: with or without face, by the flat, in blue, purple, yellow, white, red, or mixed - $15.00 (36 plants per flat)
Orders will be taken until Friday, September 24, 2010
Delivery: September 29. Pickup after school September 29, 30, October 1
Click HERE for a printable order form. Click HERE for the student sales information flyer. You may access information here for a student who needs another copy, or if you would like to order, print out the form and return to Freedom Middle School, by mail or in person, with a payment enclosed, by September 24. |
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Poinsettias – November-December
Orders for poinsettias are typically taken 10 days to two weeks before the Thanksgiving break from school. Delivery usually takes place near the first weekend of December. Poinsettias are typically available in red, white, and pink, and in four or five sizes, ranging from 4 ½ inch tabletop pots to larger 12” or 14” baskets or bowls.
2010 Sale - begins November 5 - all orders must be at Freedom Middle by 3:00 p.m.on Friday, November 19. Delivery will be Friday, December 3, with pick-up that afternoon and also before and after the Franklin Christmas parade on Saturday, December 4.
This year we will have four sizes of plants in three colors. Red, White, and Pink, in 4.5" - $6.00, 6" - $12.00, 8" - $22.00, and 12" color bowl - $25.00.
Click here for a student information sheet/order form
Click here for an individual order form (if you do not have a student to order from)
Parents will be needed to help with organization on delivery day and with distribution that afternoon and on Saturday. Please email Ms. Grooms if you can help.
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Ferns and Flowers - March and April
The spring plant sale takes place in late March to early April. Orders are taken for three varieties of ferns – Queen, Springerei, Boston, and hanging baskets of flowers - geraniums in three colors, petunias in five colors, and impatiens for shade in mixed colors. All baskets are $16.00. Students pick up the plants they sold and deliver them to individual customers. Those placing individual orders not through a students should plan to pick them up themselves. Gift certificates in $25.00 denomination are also available for Fernwood Garden Center on James Campbell Blvd. in Columbia.
2011 Spring Plant Sale: April 5 - 21. Students must turn in all orders by April 21. The order will be called in to our supplier on April 22 (we are not in school that day.) Plants will be delivered to FMS on Thursday, April 28 and may be picked up after school that day and on Friday, April 29. Parent volunteers are needed!
Click here to download an order form for the 2011 sale.
Fern varieties available*:
Flower varieties available*:
*Fern and flower photos above are not actual plants from this year's sale, but are for reference only.
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Freedom Middle School Solo and Ensemble Festival – May 7, 2010
While not a sales fundraiser in the traditional sense, the annual FMS solo and ensemble festival does generate a small amount of profit and does require considerable parent help to host. This event began over twenty years ago to provide the youngest band students in the FSSD a convenient solo and ensemble opportunity. Over the years, it has grown to a larger event, drawing students of all ages from an area including all of Williamson County and nearby counties. In 2009, over 500 events were judged. (This event is one of two or more solo and ensemble festivals that seventh and eighth grade students may choose from in order to fulfill their spring solo and ensemble requirement.)
The FMS solo and ensemble festival usually takes place on the first Saturday in May. Registration opens at 7:30 a.m. and closes at 11:30 a.m. Judging begins at 8:00 a.m. and continues until noon. Registration is $5.00 per student, per event. Unlike most such festivals, the FMS festival uses informal scheduling. Judges are hired for their ability to judge any and all instruments, typically area band directors. Students receive a blank judge’s sheet upon registration, warm up in the gym, then proceed down the hall where judges are located when they are ready to perform. Students are directed to find the shortest line as judging is “first come-first served.” Judge’s sheets are collected regularly and student scores posted in the main lobby approximately every half hour. Medals and judges’ comment sheets are awarded to students receiving Superior and Excellent ratings and are distributed to the students’ band directors at the end of the event or mailed to the school.
Area band and orchestra directors are welcome to send or bring students to this event. If several are coming, we would appreciate a call or email a week or more ahead of time so that we can make sure to have enough judges available. Traditional solo and ensemble expectations are followed:
- All wind, percussion and string instruments as would be found in bands and orchestra may enter.
- Judged entries may include solos and ensembles of any size - duet, trio, quartet, quintet, or larger ensemble of like or mixed instruments.
- Music performed should come from standard repertoire - not from a pop or movie instrumental collections, piano book, etc.
- A separate judge's copy of the music is required. It must have the measures numbered consecutively.
- Performers should dress nicely and conduct themselves with professional decorum.
- Solos with piano accompaniment are appropriate although accompaniment is not required. Pianos will be available in at least two of the judges' rooms.
Freedom parents are needed to assist with the following tasks (students may also help with adult supervision):
- Set-up the evening prior to the event
- Manning the registration table (in shifts, 7:30 – 11:30)
- Collecting judge’s sheets and posting scores (in shifts, 8:30 – noon)
- Assembling medals and helping to organize them with the judges’ comment sheets for student, by school (in shifts, 8:30 – noon)
- Hosting a hospitality room for judges, directors, and bus drivers (7:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m.)
- Supervising and running the concession stand (7:30 – 11:30 a.m.)
- Clean up, putting away of equipment, and putting the school back in order at the end of the event (noon until 1:30)
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