Floral Acts of Kindness - What you can do and What Others are Already Doing
“I love the fact that something as simple as giving a flower to someone will brighten their day.”
Wednesday February 17, 2021, is Random Acts of Kindness Day..
There are thousands of ways you can show kindness to others, but I’m going to focus on acts of ‘floral’ kindness.
I’ll give you some ideas for what you can do on February 17th, as well as ways you can continue with floral acts of kindness throughout the year.
Then I’ll share a list of wonderful organizations who are already promoting kindness through the use of flowers. I’ve included their locations and linked their websites where you can go for more information.
What you can do on Random Acts of Kindness Day:
Buy some stems of flowers, and as you walk down the street, hand them out to strangers;
Give two flowers to people you meet, encouraging them to keep one and give one to someone else;
Create a few small bouquets of flowers and place them on benches or public areas around where you live. Leave a little note with the flowers saying it’s a bouquet for them on Random Acts of Kindness Day;
Drop off some flowers at a neighbours door.
What you can do long-term:
If you have an event donate your flowers afterwards to a care facility;
Start a flower garden and give some of your flowers away;
Volunteer in organizations that repurpose flowers (see list below);
Start an organization that repurposes flowers.
And of course continue with small acts of floral kindness.
List of organizations promoting kindness through flowers:
There are some truly great ‘floral angels’ out there who volunteer their time to pick up donated flowers, repurpose them into bouquets, and deliver them to places in their city who are in need of some joy and beauty.
While each organization is similar in their goal to take flowers that would otherwise be wasted and repurpose them to bring happiness to others, they all approach this a little bit differently. If you’d like more information about any of these organizations, just click on their link to be taken to their website.
Random Acts of Flowers: Knoxville/Tampa Bay/ Indianapolis
Vision: “Our vision as a flower charity is to inspire and nurture a culture of care and compassion.” Random Acts of Flowers, delivers “recycled flowers, encouragement and personal moments of kindness” to improve the emotional health and well-being of individuals in healthcare facilities.
Petals for Hope: All US States
Mission: “To help transform the event and wedding industry into a more sustainable one by creating a streamlined and cost-effective donation process.” Petals for Hope, repurposes donated flowers from floral events and businesses by restyling them into bedside bouquets and arrangements. These are then delivered to those in the community in need. They also use the flower donations to host floral arranging workshops for children’s hospitals, nursing homes, at-risk children, and shelters.
Rebloom Flowers: Across Canada
Mission: “To ensure flowers are enjoyed for days, not hours, and our environment doesn’t suffer from our enjoyment of them.” Rebloom, uses a three-step process: Step 1: Pick up flowers that would otherwise end up in the garbage and redesign them into bedside table arrangements; Step 2: Deliver newly redesigned flowers to a charity of your choice: senior homes, patients in hospices, cancer treatment centers, mental health facilities, domestic abuse and homeless shelters; Step 3: Compost the flowers: When the flowers have reached the end of their life span, Rebloom will collect them and take them to a compost facility to complete the organic life cycle. (Note: Rebloom charges for their pick up and compost service)
Bouquets of Aloha: Maui, Hawaii
Mission: “To bring joy and kindness to those in need and a new life to flowers.” Bouquets of Aloha, accepts donated flowers and restyles them into bouquets which are then delivered to the elderly in senior centers.
The Reflower Project: Boston and South Shore, MA areas
Goal: “To be ‘green’ and we are dedicated to improving the health of the environment and well being of our community.” The Reflower Project, re-purposes and delivers flowers to community centres.
Bouquets of Kindness: Northeast Florida
“Strengthening our community, showing kindness to our neighbors and growing friendship in unexpected places with the gift of flowers.” Bouquets of Kindness, accepts donated flowers and then takes the flowers, some tools and supplies to senior living facilities. The Bouquets of Kindness volunteers stay and encourage the seniors to create their own arrangement.
FloweRescue: Helsinki
Vision: “No flower goes to waste before bringing joy to someone.” FloweRescue collects surplus flowers from those in the floral industry and repurposes them into bouquets they then deliver to residents, hospitals, and charity partners.
The Floral Project: UK
“Sow. Grow. Give.” The Floral Project, has gardeners - experienced and new - all around the UK, creating a cut flower patch in their own garden as a way to grow flowers and give to those in their community.
These are organizations I’m aware of who are making a positive impact in their community with flowers. If you know of any others, please let me know as I ‘d love to add them to my list.
Have a great time bringing joy to others on Random Acts of Kindness Day.
“Being kind to someone inspires them to be kind to someone else.”
