There is one event each year that takes a tremendous amount of effort given by volunteers, the Dogwood Arts Festival Parade. Though it is a lot of work, it is a team building experience for our volunteers and from what I’ve heard one that they really enjoy. Two volunteers co-chair this event and with the help of many of their fellow volunteers they produce a breathtaking fresh flower float to enter in the parade. This year’s co-chairs were Dolores T. and Nancy I. Dolores brought experience from her event planning business, Soiree Events, and Nancy brought years of experience as an art teacher with Knox County Schools. Of course, they have also both been volunteers with Random Acts of Flowers since the Fall of 2010 and as such brought LOTS of arranging experience as well. Their task was large, plan a fresh flower float and engage fellow volunteers to help them create it in less than 72 hours, and I must say these ladies did a fantastic job! A BIG thank you to all our hardworking volunteers for giving the additional time it took to create this masterpiece.

As they say, pictures speak a thousand words.

Additional special thanks go out to our wholesale floral supplier partners and to All Occasions Party Rentals for their generous support. It was a team effort that brought a lot of awareness to the charitable services of Random Acts of Flowers!

What a great way to kick off our Annual Fund 2012!  The month of March is when we reach out to the community and ask for financial support in order to continue fulfilling our mission to deliver smiles one bouquet at a time.  This article really gives an all around view of how Random Acts of Flowers puts your donations to work for our community.

If you would like to help support our mission follow this link to DONATE NOW by credit card, or mail a check to:
Random Acts of Flowers
PO Box 27817
Knoxville, TN 37927

Thank you for your support!

This week we hosted our second workshop to fulfill a generous grant from the Knoxville Garden Club.  The first workshop was with a Girl Scout troop, that blog entry can be found here (or by scrolling down).  Our second workshop was with the residents at Shannondale Assisted Living.

Sixteen residents gathered in the Activities Room where Random Acts of Flowers provided all the materials – flowers, vases, scissors, and helpful volunteers – for them to arrange bouquets of flowers.  The joy in the room was almost palpable!  It took a moment for everyone to get comfortable, many comments were heard along the lines that they didn’t know what to add next.  But once the residents’ began to feel more comfortable they were smiling and chatting about the task at hand.  Upon completing their bouquets many of the residents sat turning them around and around with big, proud smiles on their faces.  A few even made additional bouquets that they could deliver to their friends at the facility.

A good time was certainly had by all, from staff (RAF and Shannondale), to volunteers, to residents, everyone left with a big smile and an extra pep in their step!  What an exciting program for Random Acts of Flowers to add to our repertoire!  A very big thank you to the members of the Knoxville Garden Club for helping us to deliver smiles in this hands-on way.

Here are a few sample photos but if you want to see them all check out our album on Photobucket by following this link.

The following is also one of those situations.

I received a call from Terri, one of our volunteers.  She told me that she also volunteers at a battered women’s shelter and was wondering if we could provide bouquets for the women on Valentine’s Day.  My first response was that we wouldn’t be able to, it was outside of our mission and would be taking away from our hospital delivery planned for that day.  However, in the end I couldn’t help but call Terri back.  The chance to make a difference for these brave women was too good of an opportunity to pass up.  So we sent 12 bouquets to the facility to help remind these women that they are special, that their courage is appreciated by others in their community.  What an exciting way to spread our word, by helping to put a smile on the face of a woman who has had the courage to change her life for the better.

Shortly thereafter we received this email from Ashley N, a staff member of the facility:

Your organization just donated twelve flower arrangements to the [our facility] for Valentines Day. I just wanted to personally thank you for the donation. Words can not describe how amazing this gift is.  The women were so surprised, one almost cried because she was so happy. There also was a woman who said “who needs a man now this shows we are loved” which is so amazing because Valentines Day is usually a tough day for domestic violence victims. So again thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!!!

You are very welcome Ashley!  We hope that the memory of our delivery will help these brave ladies make it over their next tough hurdle.  :-)

I just wanted to thank Random Acts of Flowers as well as the Boring Family for the white poinsettia that my father, Emery N, received at Parkwest Hospital in Knoxville in early Decemeber.  It was actually on his 87th birthday, so that was really nice.  Since his nursing home room didn’t have room for plants or flowers, after he left Parkwest, I brought the poinsettia to my house.  It remained beautiful until the morning of my father’s death on Dec. 31.  It began to die, even though I have owned my own greenhouse and worked in others and know how to care for these plants.  It totally died within a week.  I bought an ornamental Japanese Cherry Tree to plant in my yard in memory of my dad, and in the hole, I placed the poinsettia.  I will remember your kindness, and the tree will remind me, too.  Thanks.  - Conny O.

Thank you Conny for sharing such a sweet, heartwarming story with us!

Wanted to share a sweet experience I had this morning. When I walked into my corporate environment, I was greeted by a cartful of vases filled with cheery yellow and green mums. The woman wielding it is an acquaintance from dance class, so as we made our way into the elevator I said; “Oh, it’s like random act of flowers.” She laughed and replied that she had been inspired to recycle and share the bouquets by RAF (I don’t know if she participated in the Day of Caring) a few years ago. So the IT floor – and many cubicles – are a little brighter today thanks to you all! - Kristina

Her story shows how you can do a “random act” on your own.  Often we receive calls from other states, people who found us online and don’t realize that we are a small organization.  I usually encourage them to do a “random act” on their own.  If you are having an event with simple centerpieces any local assisted living facility would LOVE to have those arrangements to put in their communal dining area.  Or you could branch out of our recipient circle, maybe a battered women’s shelter or an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting space.  There is no reason for one time use flowers to go in the trash… share them!  Spread the joy in your community.  :-)

How exciting to learn that we have a second such donation following closely on the heels of our very first!  We recently received a large donation from a company in California.  Upon following up to discover how they heard of us and why they felt compelled to donate we learned that they were donating in memory of an employee’s deceased spouse.  But the story was not to end there.  I recently received the following Share Your Story from Stew.

Thank-you so much for the work you do. My wife, DiAnne received one of your arrangements when she was in the hospital 2 years ago recovering from brain surgery. I have recently lost my beloved DiAnne, but my company, the Linux Foundation was gracious enough to make a donation in her name. Keep up the good work! - Stew

We are very sorry to hear about DiAnne’s passing but so happy to hear that we helped her in her time of need.  And to think it was 2 years ago; we must have really made an impression!  I think that this story shows how profound of an affect our deliveries can have on families who are going through a difficult time.  Something as small as a bouquet of flowers delivered by a stranger “just because” can be the light that is so badly needed during the dark periods of our lives.  A moment when you are reminded that there is beauty to be had and compassion to be shared.

This also reiterates the importance of Sharing Your Story.  Our volunteers see over and over again the joy, the smiles, that are in response to our deliveries.  They try to share their stories but all they know is that someone in the hospital/nursing home/assisted living was smiling when they left the room.  They don’t know the story behind the smile, and those stories are a reminder of how important is our mission to deliver smiles, one bouquet at a time.

If you are a recipient, family member of a recipient, nurse or staff at a facility, please take a moment to Share Your Story.  It means so very much to us here at Random Acts of Flowers to hear about how our mission is affecting our community.  And it is your stories that compel our community to donate in order to help us continue fulfilling our Mission.

We often speak about how our mission affects healthcare residents in our community.  What we don’t often share is how the staff of our recipient facilities are affected by our deliveries.  The mood of the residents at a facility strongly affects the mood of the staff.  Just imagine… if all the residents are in a bad mood, they are going to be contrary and difficult with the staff.  If the residents are happy and excited they are going to transfer these positive feeling onto the staff members with whom they interact.

Enter Random Acts of Flowers.  Who wouldn’t be in a good mood after receiving a big, beautiful bouquet of flowers from a stranger, someone who just wants to make sure that they have a reason to smile that day?!  When our volunteers deliver to a healthcare community they brighten the day for not only recipients but for the nursing staff, the cleaning staff, the meal staff, the activities staff, and anyone who comes into contact with the lovely bouquet and the recipient of said bouquet.  The mood of the entire community is uplifted after a visit from Random Acts of Flowers.

As evidence of this ripple the testimonials that we receive are quite often from the staff members of a facility.  They often read very much like this one from Sunny.

Thank you!  Our residents love Random Acts of Flowers! I work in an assisted living community and it was amazing to see the difference a simple act of kindness could make in someones day. Our residents really appreciated the fact that someone took time out of their day to come say a friendly hello and deliver flowers to them. Thank you so much for blessing our community in this way.

We are, as always, very happy to hear from communities to which we deliver.  We also received three handwritten thank yous from this delivery!

Keeping in mind the ripple effect I invite you to start your own ripple within your community.  Smile at someone on the street… they are likely to smile at the next person they see.  Compliment someone who looks nice… they are likely to spread the joy of your compliment to others.  Drop an extra quarter into an expired parking meter… you will make someone’s day!