SPREADING SMILES FROM A DISTANCE WITH FLOWERS
written by Liza Roeser
If you live in the Boise area, you may have seen the Chanel 2 article about our recent flower donations. This was a gesture that was without question, and I felt personally passionate about spreading the joy to some important members of my community. This was also in collaboration with one of our amazing flower farms Natuflor, who is a part of our #SaveTheGrowers campaign. These bouquets went to the amazingly kind and friendly senior residents at the Bannock Arms apartments and the staff of the COVID-19 ward at St. Alphonsus Hospital. I have been diligently watching these events unfold as I worry about the state of our world, and the health of all the people in my life, but what I wasn’t expecting was how surreal it would be to stand outside of that hospital on a busy Friday morning.
It has been an obstacle course of emotions since this COVID-19 pandemic first hit America, and as a small business owner, I have been sprinting to find the answers to all the questions and uncertainty that it all has left me. I feel that this cloud of confusion has fallen on all of us, together, and the idea came that NOW is the time that we all need to focus on what can put a smile on our faces, even just for a minute.
Spreading Joy Through Flowers
delivering flowers to seniors
The smiles I saw when I dropped 40 bouquets of fresh flowers off at the Bannock Arms Apartments was the mood boost that I needed. These are some Boise local seniors, and this has got to be such an uncertain and scary time for them. When they broke open their specially prepared box, I stepped back and enjoyed the scene as more and more residents started to come out of their rooms. The sun was shining brighter than it had in the last few days and the joy radiated as they inspected the beautiful assortments that Natuflor had sent us, topped off with pastel bunnies that looked good enough to eat.
This is a reminder of why I got into the flower business, to begin with, and assured me that the fight I step into every day to keep the deliveries going out is making a difference. Our next donation the following day surprised me in ways I wasn’t prepared for, but ultimately humbled to see.
Delivering Bouquets to Local Hospital
nurse and hospital president with bouquets
On the following day, a freezing and windy Friday morning, my small team and I gathered at a safe distance from the entrance of St. Alphonsus Hospital. Before we were greeted by the recipients of our donation, we couldn’t escape the brightly colored signs posted on every open space of the doors to the main lobby. “NO VISITORS ALLOWED” was the first line that I noticed. Below that on other signs were the symptoms for the Coronavirus, and how to proceed if you are feeling them. These signs paired with what I saw next threw me into the utter reality that we all are in now.
nurses holding bouquets
In Boise, Idaho, we are seeing rising numbers, we aren’t nearly as populated as we are mostly rural, but as a state, we see the storm on the horizon of what could hit us in full at any moment. As I watched from a safe distance, a few nurses, doctors and staff emerged from the battlegrounds of the COVID-19 ward, some dressed in PPE, the emotions broke the dam and flooded throughout me. These brave men and women are our soldiers, so to speak, on the front lines of this disease in my community. As I spoke to them, from a strange and slightly awkward distance about the flowers we were donating and why THEY deserved them, all of our eyes began to steam up. These people needed to be recognized. They are working unbelievably long hours, putting themselves directly in the path of this dangerous virus, and sometimes going days without seeing their own families. The gravity of this sacrifice has humbled me to my core. Seeing the smiles and happy tears being spread around to the local heroes was a bigger gift to me than I can ever thank them for.
group of nurses and doctors with flowers
Thank you Local Heroes. Thank you each and every essential worker who is exposing themselves to this virus in different ways. Last but not least, thank you to every kind soul who has helped my companies #KeepTheLightsOn, and in turn, kept the flowers delivered, and rescued them from the dumpsters. We are ALL in this together, we will rise together, begin to rebuild our world, and prosper better than ever as a human race.