Students line up to claim and deliver their poinsettias. photo by Anja Oss
TJ’s science department hosts their annual poinsettia fundraiser.
With the holiday season quickly approaching, TJ’s science department hosted their annual sale of poinsettias. The department hosts this fundraiser so that students can sell poinsettias to family and friends to help decorate for the holiday season, all while raising money to benefit TJ’s science classes.
While poinsettias are a joyful holiday decoration, many don’t know their significance. Poinsettias are native to Mexico and Central America, and rose from the legend of a poor girl who gathered weeds as a gift to celebrate Jesus’s birth, and placed them on a church altar. The weed then sprouted crimson red, and then became known as poinsettias. Since then, poinsettias are a meaningful symbol that people often display for the holidays all over the world.
This fundraiser helps raise money for classes and new equipment. Most of the science teachers require a large amount of resources which are used up every year, and thus the department requires a large budget. The revenue generated by the poinsettias provides further aid to these teachers, who use this fundraiser to help with the additional money needed. “The ultimate goal for the science department is for us to obtain an additional $4,000-5,000,” explained TJ Biology teacher and director of poinsettia sales Scott Thomas.
The sales of poinsettias not only helps the science department, but students as well. Several teachers will provide extra credit for students who sell poinsettias. Some teachers will even give 50 points worth of extra credit for the first poinsettia students sell, and five to ten points for every poinsettia they sell after that. For many students, this a great opportunity to earn more points before the semester ends. Additionally, the science teachers usually compete to see which teacher has the most success with selling poinsettias.
This fundraiser is a chance to give back to the science department as well as decorate for the holidays. The science department largely benefits from the selling of the poinsettias which provides students with more materials and a chance to improve grades. By buying a poinsettias, not only does it help out the science department but also have festive decor for the holiday season.
