Hosta sale proceeds to aid Heifer International

A Hosta Happening is set from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 8 at Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery Inc., 11618 McConnell Road, Woodstock.

All proceeds will benefit Heifer International.

Hosta sales will be held all day featuring more than 350 varieties. Sales are by cash or check only.

Refreshments will be provided.

Heifer International staff and volunteers will be available to answer any questions about the charity.

From 10 a.m. to noon, Tom Michiletti, president of the American Hosta Society, will be available to identify your unknown hosta leaves.

At 1 p.m. Rich Eyre will present Conifers for the Shade Garden. Take a walk with Rich and learn what conifers and plants grow in the shade.

A verbal auction of rare and unusual hostas will be held at 3 p.m.

All sales of the 350-plus varieties of hostas benefit Heifer International, an international charity that leads hungry people to self-reliance through sharing farm animals.

The recipients of the animals must pass on the first female offspring to another family in need.

Eyre worked with this organization in the Peace Corps 37 years ago in Bolivia and he can give testimony to its positive effects in those communities. Heifer International has provided food and income producing animals to more than 7 million impoverished families in 125 countries in the last 62 years.

The fundraising builds endowments for perpetuity to supply hope to the neediest places on earth.

For more information, call Foxwillow at (815)338-7442.

Susan and Richard Eyre, owners of Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery Inc. have donated all the hosta sales to Heifer International for the last 10 years. Rich's mother, Margaret Eyre, 89, spends the entire summer dividing and potting up hostas.

Heifer International volunteers come and help her with this project. Plants are sold at the Chicagoland Flower and Garden Show and at the nursery in Woodstock.