Submitted Photo Students plant, grow and take care of all the plants from January until the day they are sold at G.R.O.W. Day.

Dakota Memorial School at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, Minot, will be hosting its fifth annual G.R.O.W Day Garden Sale Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Dakota Boys and Girls Thrift Store on South Broadway.

Plants for sale include potted plants, hanging baskets, bush cucumbers, tomatoes, geraniums, aloe and jade plants. Handmade bike planters, benches, small and large toolboxes, mancala games, and chicken nesting boxes made by the students in the Ranch shop classes also will be available to purchase.

Although this is the fifth annual G.R.O.W. day for DMS, the premise has been around longer.

“God Rewards Our Work, G.R.O.W. Day evolved from what was BLT Days at the Ranch to a more student-centered way to exhibit students’ projects,” said Suzanne Erz, science and botany teacher. “These projects are created in the greenhouse through lessons, the production technology classes, business classes and small engines classes, which is sponsored by Verendrye Electric Cooperative.”

G.R.O.W. Day allows for many students to participate. With classes from shop to botany, students with a wide range of skills and interests help bring the day to fruition.

Cloe Ellis, a junior student and key part in the preparation of G.R.O.W. Day, was able to participate for the first time this year.

“I’ve done a little bit of everything in the greenhouse, from seeding to propagating to transplanting,” Ellis said. “I’ve done just about everything you could think of. I planted most of the plants as well as making price labels for the plants to prepare them to be sold.”

The students at DMS are able to use a variety of skills they have learned throughout the year in order to put on such an event.

“There is a group of four teachers who comprise the G.R.O.W. Day committee,” Erz said. “We meet regularly to discuss projects for the sale and encourage one another and assist each other’s classes as we prep for the sale. We encourage other classes to submit any projects they would like to have their students create and have sold at G.R.O.W. Day.”

“I teach the students propagation methods, seeding techniques, how to use a propagation chamber and many other things about plants and soil, etc,. to meet the class standards,” Erz said. “I work with other teachers who incorporate their standards to create other projects that are sold at our G.R.O.W. sale. Some examples are handmade wooden seats, bicycle planters, rebuilt lawnmowers, garden signs, wallets and much more.”

Preparation for a sale of this magnitude starts as early as January. The students, with the help of their teachers, began seeding and propagating in January and maintain the plants and continue to both seed and propagate up to sale day.

“Earnings from G.R.O.W. Day goes back to the school, Dakota Memorial School, at the Minot Campus in the form of grant money, which the staff in the school can apply to receive,” Erz said. A G.R.O.W. grant committee will review the applications and determine the amount to be awarded.

“It is a pleasure to watch the students gain self-confidence as they visualize what they have planted to become a plant,” she said. “The students gain a feeling of self worth as they begin to care for the plants and take ownership of their work. It is a blessing to see the students blossom in the greenhouse just as their plants bloom and blossom.”

While the preparation lasts longer than the day itself, G.R.O.W. Day itself is something Ellis is grateful to share with others.

“G.R.O.W. day to me is about coming together and sharing my love for plants with other people in our community,” he said.

Some students who created projects will be able to participate in the sale day at the thrift store as well. It allows students to explain projects and use sales techniques learned in their business classes.

“It is a pleasure to see the smiles on the faces of the students with every sale that is made and as projects and or plants leave the store,” Erz said,“because God ‘does’ Reward Our Work.”