Plants for Black Lives Matter
Passionate about racial justice, a Marquette employee raises nearly $15,000 for the cause — and she’s just getting started
By Abby Cole, communication specialist in the Office of Marketing and Communication
For Dani Castillo, two things have always been true: Black Lives Matter and she must have a ton of plants in her home.
Only recently has the office associate in the Opus College of Engineering brought these two disconnected truths together.
A few weeks ago, when the Black Lives Matter movement was beginning to mobilize — protests, kneel-ins, fundraisers and more were taking place across the country — Castillo wondered how she could contribute.
That’s when she had the idea to combine two of her greatest passions.
Castillo and a few friends decided to host a “Plants for Black Lives Matter” fundraiser. They would collect plants to sell, with all proceeds going to local racial justice organizations and to supply personal protective equipment to protesters in Milwaukee.
They set up the event at Humboldt Park in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood. Unsure how the community would respond, Castillo feared that people would not show up.
“I thought we would make $100, maybe $200, if we were lucky,” Castillo said.
She was wrong.
Within the first hour, they sold nearly all their 200 succulents. And in less than three hours, they raised $3,276. Castillo said she had more medical supplies than her spacious mudroom could hold.
But people wanted to keep a good thing going, so community members volunteered to get more plants to sell on the spot. “People just kept bringing carloads of donated plants to sell,” Castillo noted.
Castillo said she was overwhelmed and overjoyed at the amount of people who showed up to support Black Lives Matter — whether they donated, purchased or even just honked and chanted to show support as they passed by.
The first event was such a success that she did it again the following weekend. That time, they nearly doubled their supply, gathering more than 500 succulents, houseplants and garden seedlings to sell.
They raised just over $10,000.
All funds raised so far have gone toward the collection of medical supplies for people participating in protests and local organizations, including Black Leaders Organizing Communities and Leaders Igniting Transformation.
The next event is scheduled for Saturday, June 27, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Humboldt Park.
Funds will once again go toward protest aid and also Black Educators Caucus MKE, a group of Black Milwaukee educators working toward and advocating for policy reform in public schools throughout the city.
