The beloved annual Orchid Festival returns to Gubler Orchids in Landers this week.
On last week’s Z107.7 Up Close Show, host Gary Daigneault spoke with orchid organizer Chris Gubler to break down the way that the festival provides significant funding to local non-profit organizations.
Chris Gubler: “Any purchases inside the greenhouse, it totally goes towards the nonprofits except for sales tax and credit card fees and those type of incidentals not related to our daily operation. And outside the component, Joshua Tree Brewery, they donate 100% of the proceeds from the Orchid Beers, which is the famous Sherry Baby Beer, the one that smells like chocolate. And we have another fragrant one called Golden Pixie.
And so those two beers, 100% of the sales from that goes towards Rotary and to the nonprofits. The object of the festival was to create a showcase for nonprofits because, you know, somebody may not know who Theater 29 is or what Unity Home does, or, you know, Boys and Girls Club and who they serve. So this is an opportunity to showcase their nonprofit, as well as making some money along the way.
So we came up with this idea of a Rotary Buck. So 10% of your purchase, so if you bought $100 worth, you’d get 10 Rotary Bucks. And you can then select the charities that you would like to support.
And then the top three get a bigger share of that pot. And then if the organization helps with the Orchid Festival, then they get a larger amount of the funding as well.”
The 28th Annual Morongo Basin Orchid Festival runs this Saturday (October 5) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday (October 6) from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
You can hear their full conversation by listening to the Z107.7 Up Close Show below:
