Hauling mulch may not be what one typically imagines a high school student doing at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning. However, on Saturday, Mar. 28, that’s exactly what student volunteers at WJ’s annual mulch sale will be doing. Some students will be doing it for SSL hours, while others will be participating to benefit a club or team that they are a part of to benefit the Booster Club.

Joe Okon, co-chair of this year’s Walt Whitman High School’s mulch sale has organized the mulch sale in the past. Okon said that after the first mulch sale, the Booster Club continued putting it on annually because it was their biggest moneymaker. Holli Beckerman Jaffe, co-chair of WJ’s mulch sale, cited a similar reason, saying that the funds raised from the mulch sale will be used to give back to the student groups at WJ, ranging from clubs to sports teams.

“Some schools, the Booster Club is just to raise money for the sports teams, the athletic department, [but] at Walter Johnson the Booster Club is all-school,” said Jaffe.

Other high schools in the area, including Winston Churchill, also organized mulch sales this year. The first mulch sale at WJ took place in 2006, while Whitman’s first sale took place in 2007 and Churchill’s in 2010. Although the mulch sale is a lot of fun for those involved, its primary purpose is fundraising.

“[The mulch sale is] really popular, a lot of the schools do it, so I don’t think we necessarily originated it at WJ, but I don’t know,” Jaffe said. “It’s popular in the community, [because] I think the community likes to get their mulch this way [because] it’s delivered to the house, it’s popular [among] the students because it’s really a lot of fun, and I think it’s popular with the Booster Club because it’s very successful.”

According to Jaffe, WJ’s mulch sale historically raises anywhere from $12,000 to $15,000. Okon declined to comment on the amount that is typically raised from Whitman’s mulch sale.

There are some differences between Whitman’s, WJ’s, and Churchill’s mulch sales in terms of how they are organized and executed by the Booster Club, but there are some similarities as well.

Four weeks prior to the actual mulch sale, Whitman’s Booster Club sets up a website so people can buy mulch online and give their addresses for its delivery. It also simultaneously sends out communications to buyers from previous years. These include Whitnet and Pylenet, which are the PTSA-regulated email networks for Whitman and for Thomas W. Pyle Middle School, respectively, and the area elementary schools. Okon said that approximately 8,000 bags of mulch are delivered to the school, and that mulch is also sold to drive-up sales in the Whitman parking lot.

In order to transport the mulch to buyers’ homes, the Booster Club also rents 10 U-Haul trucks and loads them up with mulch. The mulch is delivered over the course of two days, and each U-Haul makes three to five runs each day. Parents drive both the trucks and vehicles carrying student athletes, who unload the mulch at each of the trucks’ stops.

At WJ’s mulch sale, parents once again drive the trucks carrying mulch, as well as the students in charge of delivering it. However, in contrast to Whitman’s method, an overall committee for the mulch sale is created, with multiple groups of one or two people, plus their friends, assigned to oversee specific aspects of the one-day sale. Some of the components to consider are organizing food and drinks for the volunteers, giving out T-shirts, recruiting drivers and renting large trucks.

“The mulch sale is organized through paper and online sales to the Churchill [community]. Then, staff, students, and parents alike help deliver mulch the last weekend of March,” said Christin Nixon, who is helping to organize the sale as the sponsor of Churchill’s class of 2015. At Churchill, the senior class and its staff sponsor are usually in charge of organizing the mulch sale.

Additionally, whereas the funds raised by Whitman’s mulch sale are focused on athletics and are specifically used for athletes, teams and fields, the money raised from Churchill’s mulch sale will be used to pay for senior events such as prom and graduation.

“It’s a great way to both raise money and get the community involved,” Nixon said.

In contrast, the funds raised by WJ’s mulch sale are aimed at giving back to the student groups.

“We [support] any club or competitive interest [at WJ]…and that’s what the money for the mulch sale goes towards, is to…basically give back to the school,” Jaffe said. “[When] the Booster Club raises money, its sole purpose is to raise money to give back to the student groups.”

This Sunday, Mar. 22, is the deadline to help the Booster Club give back to the student groups by ordering mulch online or printing the mail order form at the following link: www.wjmulchsale.com. Parents can also sign up to volunteer at the mulch sale website, and student volunteers should email Cheryl Lopez at the email listed on the website.