To give parents and students in the special education program a boost, Micah Pettigrew came up with an awards ceremony.
Pettigrew is Ector County ISD’s special education supervisor over autism, homebound and 18-plus. The awards ceremony, usually held in the spring, has been financed through poinsettia sales for the holidays since 2004.
Unable to get financial help from her principal or the special education director in administration back then, Pettigrew asked colleagues for help.
They divided up who would make what foods and the students made the decorations.
“When my principal saw how much we were putting into it, he was like maybe I can come up with a little bit of money to help you out with this and so he did buy some of the food. We just did a few extras you know on top of that,” Pettigrew said.
Meanwhile, she went to the ECISD horticulture building and asked them if they would sell her some poinsettias that they could sell to the community. ECISD horticulture does not sell poinsettias to the banquet fundraiser anymore; they get the flowers from another company.
She said they sold less than 100 poinsettias, but it provided some funds for the awards dinner and ceremony. They made some money to offset the cost.
When she was at LBJ Elementary, the principal suggested sending flyers home with the 600 students in attendance and those are clients she still has today.
“There were parents from back then that were just parents that their kids went to school there. They had nothing to do with the special ed department. And they still to this day … not all of them obviously, but I still have quite a few that are still customers to this day. We did it there until 2008 and then I moved to Permian. I took my poinsettia fundraiser with me and at Permian it got bigger because I had more students, and so the poinsettia fundraiser got bigger,” Pettigrew said.
After PHS, she then went to George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa.
“When we opened 18 Plus program and went to New Tech in 2017, I then started incorporating OHS and Permian with us. Both OHS and Permian and New Tech, all three were selling poinsettias together. I’ll be honest, it was a little difficult because it was three campuses to coordinate poinsettia sales, but we worked at it, we tried and we tried to make it successful but long term it was very difficult. When we moved to this building, we went ahead and we took the money, we split it three ways. We gave money to OHS, gave money to Permian and kept a third of the money for us, and we let them start their own fundraisers and do what they wanted to do and we started doing it just for the Transition Learning Center. I would say that was probably 2019 when that happened. So ever since then it’s just been us,” Pettigrew said.
The whole premise behind it was to have the awards ceremony.
At LBJ, it was kind of a small event, but at Permian it was huge with more than 400 people. Satin Strings would play; ROTC would present the colors and they would have things like horse-and-carriage rides for the kids.
Now it’s more about student preference. In the 18-plus program, the students are adults and they want to have a nice dinner and dance, Pettigrew said.
Laura Morris, social skills/community teacher, said the students vote on how they spend the money.
“It’s a student led activity fund so they’re in charge and we kind of just facilitate. We have a monthly meeting, where we have officers that they voted on themselves. We throw things out there and they get to decide where we want our dance to be and do we want to pay for a DJ? Do we want to forego the DJ and have nicer food; whatever they decide that they want to spend the money on. It’s usually a DJ and a photo booth,” Morris said.
“We still do the awards so the parents get to see their student get an award because, like Ms. Pettigrew said, that’s not something that our parents get to see heir students do. They don’t get A Honor Roll. They just don’t really participate in those kinds of assemblies, so it’s nice for them every year to see their student come up there and get an award that’s personalized to their student,” she added.
Pettigrew said most students love it.
The staff votes on the awards the students get.
Morris said the poinsettia sales help finance the awards, but they are also used for community based activities or gifts for parents.
With prices going up, however, they skipped the gifts to parents — although she would like to get back to that — and made it so they could have more funds for food and awards.
Morris said she feels like they deserve the dance.
“They love that part. They don’t go to prom. Permian is doing a really cool thing where they’re starting a prom for our kids, but before that for a long time, they didn’t go to the school dances; they didn’t go to the prom; they don’t get invited to things like that. This is really special for them every year,” Morris said.
This year, they raised their poinsettia prices for the first time in 12 years.
“We thought it was going to affect things, but it’s not. All of our major companies that buy, they still bought just as many; Halliburton and Sewell Ford. They buy a lot. We were worried. Still everybody’s done really well with the price change,” Morris said.
Pettigrew said they have sold 1,008 poinsettias for the last four or five years.
“We considered going up on the amount we sold this year, but we’re afraid with the price increase we shouldn’t do that. We feel very comfortable with our 1,008 because we always sell that,” Pettigrew said.
Morris noted that the students usually sell most of the poinsettias. This year, the poinsettias are $15, which is a price increase.
Pettigrew said they will deliver to any campus, if it’s a school. If they buy 10 or more, delivery is free. If it’s less than 10, they charge a $5 delivery fee. People can also pick up their poinsettia orders.
The flowers came in red, pink, white and marble, but only red and white are left at this point.
They mail the order forms to companies every year. The students stuff the envelopes, address them and send them out.
“They’re involved in every part of it. Then once the orders start coming in, they’re the ones who fill the orders,” Morris said.
The students write the thank-you notes, look through the orders and pull orders for Morris. The students also deliver the orders with help from TLC staff.
The ones that have been doing it for a couple of years take newer students under their wing.
One reason customers keep coming back is the kids.
Pettigrew said they teach the students how to sell and give them pointers. If they’re struggling with something, the staff helps them out.
“It’s definitely a positive experience for all,” Pettigrew said.
For orders, call 432-456-0287.
