Dolly Parton’s Memorial Flowers Deliver Joy Once More
Dolly Parton made a career as an entertainer; her legacy, however, has just as much to do with her altruism. From putting books in the hands of children through her Imagination Library to supporting medical research and disaster relief, Parton had a well-documented penchant for helping strangers. She even found a way to “Petal It Forward.”
Years ago, Parton connected with Random Acts of Flowers, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based nonprofit that repurposes donated flowers into fresh bouquets for people in hospitals, hospice, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities. Now, in the wake of Parton’s Aug. 25 death, the organization is giving the flowers left in her memory a second life. Volunteers are collecting thousands of floral tributes from Parton’s hometown of Sevierville, where bouquets have accumulated around a statue in her likeness, and from a mural honoring her in downtown Knoxville, then redesigning the usable blooms for recipients throughout eastern Tennessee.
“It’s been a wild week and very bittersweet to say the least, but what a gift to find this light in the midst of such a heartbreaking loss,” says Allison Slavick, executive director of Random Acts of Flowers.
Logistics of Love
For Random Acts of Flowers, the basic process is familiar, but the scale is not.
The Knoxville operation has two full-time employees, a design workshop, and a network of more than 300 active volunteers. In a typical week, about 80 to 90 volunteers help design, retrieve or deliver flowers in the region. Since Parton’s passing, roughly twice the usual number have turned out to process her memorial flowers.
Normally, the organization creates between 1,500 and 2,000 bouquets each month, or roughly 400 per week. Amid the memorial effort, volunteers have handled about the same volume in a single day. Designs go out with enclosure cards that say, “a gift from a Dolly fan,” and often a cluster of butterflies.
“We are doing all we can with all the volunteers we have at the moment,” Slavick says. “We don’t want a single bloom to go to waste.”
Making the most of those flowers required some quick thinking — and cooperation from local officials.
Slavick says she spoke with Sevier County and City of Knoxville officials about the importance of care and handling of flowers. The opportunity to reuse them diminishes quickly if bouquets are left baking in the Tennessee sun, she explained.
“They heard how our process works and were so responsive,” Slavick says. “They purchased the pink buckets that have been all over the news and put them out in the shape of a heart, so mourners could keep their bouquets hydrated.”
The solution meant more of the flowers left as expressions of grief could ultimately become gestures of encouragement for someone else.
An Idea Born in a Hospital Room
That cycle of giving has defined Random Acts of Flowers since its beginning.
Founder Larsen Jay was seriously injured in a near-fatal accident in July 2007. During multiple surgeries and a difficult recovery, daily visitors and dozens of floral arrangements provided an emotional lift. When he was eventually discharged, he noticed that many other patients had no blooms. From his wheelchair, he began sharing his own flowers with them. The response to that simple gesture inspired the creation of Random Acts of Flowers in 2008.
Today, the organization’s flagship remains in Knoxville, with three additional locations in Tampa, Florida; Indianapolis; and Asheville, North Carolina. Their designs reach pediatric to geriatric recipients who are sick or injured, be it at home or in a brick-and-mortar healthcare facility.
‘A Gift Twice Given’
Parton’s connection with Random Acts of Flowers began years before the current memorial effort. One of the organization’s board members met her at a television station and told her about its work.
“Of course, our mission resonated with her — she was all about spreading joy,” Slavick says.
The encounter grew into a longstanding relationship with Dollywood. When Parton appeared in parades riding an antique carriage adorned with hundreds of flowers, Random Acts of Flowers would later deconstruct the floral decorations and repurpose the blooms.
Parton had also developed the same habit on her own. Faced with more dressing-room bouquets than she could take aboard her tour bus, she would send the extras to nursing homes and hospitals.
“The sweetest gift is a gift twice given, as they say, so I always think there’s so much truth in that,” Parton said to reporter Katie Inman from the local East Tennessee news station WBIR (10News). “It makes me feel good that something that has made me happy can make someone else happy.”
Now, that philosophy is attracting attention far beyond eastern Tennessee. Since Parton’s passing, Random Acts of Flowers has been tagged in countless news stories and social media posts about their work and has seen a surge in volunteer applications and inquiries.
Others have asked how they can launch similar efforts in their own communities. Slavick says Random Acts of Flowers’ goal isn’t necessarily to establish affiliates everywhere, but rather to show people how flowers already present in their communities — at events, celebrations, memorials and elsewhere — can serve another purpose.
“We really do believe this mission and purpose could happen anywhere,” Slavick says. “There are events with flowers happening in cities all over the world that could find a second life brightening spirits for someone who’s suffering.”
For the flowers left in Parton’s memory, that second purpose seems especially fitting: a final gift to Dolly, petaled forward to someone who could use a little joy.