Random Acts of Flowers brings extra kindness
to Silicon Valley
(San Francisco Chronicle, 6.9.2017)
“If you’re having a wedding or other celebration that involves cut-flower arrangements, a new Bay Area charity, Random Acts of Flowers: Silicon Valley, would love to have them after the event. Donated flowers will be recut, rearranged into informal bouquets and delivered to patients in health care facilities. Some patients don’t have family or friends to bring flowers and cheer. These bouquets, and the volunteers who bring them, can make a big difference in a patient’s emotional well-being.
The first city to have a Random Acts of Flowers operation was Knoxville, Tenn., where the nonprofit opened in 2008. Other operations (with years they were founded) are in Tampa Bay, Fla., 2013; Chicago, 2015; and Indianapolis, 2016. Our regional operation, in Menlo Park, also opened in 2016.
The organization accepts donated vases and is seeking volunteers to pick up donated flowers, make the bouquets and deliver them to patients. If you want to donate flowers, the group has a form on its website to arrange drop-offs or pickups. (You can drop off flowers at the Menlo Park headquarters, 3501 Edison Way, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Or, if you give two weeks’ notice and are within a 30-minute radius of the office, they will pick them up.)
“If you’re having a wedding or other celebration that involves cut-flower arrangements, a new Bay Area charity, Random Acts of Flowers: Silicon Valley, would love to have them after the event. Donated flowers will be recut, rearranged into informal bouquets and delivered to patients in health care facilities. Some patients don’t have family or friends to bring flowers and cheer. These bouquets, and the volunteers who bring them, can make a big difference in a patient’s emotional well-being.