Every so often, we like to reach out to a past [echievement] award winner, to see what they’ve been up to…Well, lucky us, Larsen happens to be passing through eTown and he joins us now to tell us how things have evolved –
Most people love a surprise, at least one that makes you smile or feel better. But it’s just as fun when you’re the one making someone else’s day.
“Flowers always lighten up my life. How could they not lighten up the people who get them?” said one volunteer.
“They’re beautiful. Who wouldn’t love a flower?” said another.
For Ruth Onesi, it would be a more than eight-hour drive from her home in Niagara Falls, NY, to our nearest branch in Indianapolis, IN. And, despite that her donations deliver hope and encouragement to people she will never meet in cities she may never visit, RAF can count on Onesi’s support like clockwork. She is just one of the many donors living in locations where we don’t have branches inspired by the Random Acts of Flowers mission.
How did she learn about RAF? Call it serendipity, if you will; but Ruth’s membership to the monthly Dollar Shave Club brought the RAF mission directly to her mailbox. The April 2015 Club Handbook featured a photo of RAF Founder and CEO Larsen Jay handing flowers to someone in a hospital bed and included some information about RAF. Ruth even admits, “I don’t know why I read it that month. I usually just recycle it.” So, we wanted to know what made Ruth decide donate from a distance in the first place, and what keeps her coming back to the RAF mission:
What attracted you to the RAF cause?
Everyone wants to know they matter. Some people are reminded of it more often than others, and unfortunately some people won’t ever know. There is always someone who cares for you without your knowledge; and, with RAF, it’s a guarantee that more and more people will know they matter and that someone cares for them when they need it the most.
Do you have a personal story that connects you to the RAF mission?
I am super grateful that I actually have zero personal experience being in a hospital. I just thought it was so cool. I’ve visited people in the hospital before and you see someone who’s in the waiting room or comes out and no one’s waiting for them. It’s awful.
One thing that does connect me is that I’m at that age where everyone is getting married, and they had a bunch of flowers at their weddings and then you’d just see them getting thrown away at the end of the night. It’s such a waste! So the fact that RAF recycles flowers gives hope to other peopl – something that would have been garbage – I think that’s really amazing.
Since you are a distance from an RAF branch, what motivates you to stay involved?
RAF is my favorite charity, hands down. I donate each week to some place, and I don’t see where the money goes for any of them. I go online and see the pictures RAF posts of people receiving flowers and that’s enough for me. I am always excited to continue donating to such an amazing cause that gives away happiness to everyone involved. I love knowing that what I donate can still affect multiple people in such a positive way.
In your opinion, what is the value of RAF’s mission?
The mission of recycling flowers to give hope and smiles to unsuspecting sick, lonely, and sometimes even ‘forgotten’ people is pretty much the greatest idea I had ever heard. I always root for the underdog.
What inspires you to continue supporting?
The best gifts are the simple ones, not just on special occasions or every once in a while. Random Acts of Flowers gives the gift of encouragement and boosts emotional health all year round!
What do you hope RAF will achieve moving forward?
My hope is that RAF will continue to grow and grow, and one day every city would have a branch. Most importantly, Niagara Falls, NY, of course!
What would you say to other potential supporters who don’t have an RAF branch in their backyard?
I challenge anyone who wants to see a small piece of the effect that this kind of charity has on people to try it for themselves. Go to a store, buy a bouquet, and hand it to anyone you want. See what happens. See how it changes their day. The happiness on their face, the way you feel knowing you may have just made their day. Maybe you just changed their whole outlook, or maybe even yours! And, that’s someone just walking down the street. That’s just a fraction of what RAF does everyday. The people who RAF gives flowers to are in the hospital, they’re lonely, so it means all the more to see that someone cares about them.
Simple and unexpected acts of kindness are easy to give but the echoes are truly endless!
What’s your favorite flower and why?
I do not have a favorite flower actually! But I do know that orange ones of any kind are usually the prettiest in my opinion.
Do you have any additional thoughts you want to share?
I just want to send a big thank you to Larsen and all the folks at Random Acts of flowers for providing something so amazing in a world full of chaos.
* Random Acts of Flowers ever-expanding service area currently includes Knoxville (TN), Tampa Bay (FL), Chicago (IL), Indianapolis (IN), and Silicon Valley (CA), but we receive support from donors in 34 of the 50 states. We hope you’ll join them by donating today!
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By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors
At Random Acts of Flowers (RAF), recipients of the arrangements are touched and surprised.
“The calls we get from these recipients, they just make you weep because you know what that arrangement looked like. You know it was not a big extravagant bouquet, it was a tiny little happy, made-with-love arrangement to a stranger,” said Alison Kothe, Indianapolis’ RAF executive director
One Eskenazi Hospital patient called the week after a delivery and left a voicemail saying, “‘They’re making me go to this rehab place way out on 38th Street, but they cannot make me not take my flowers. They may kick me out, but I’m taking my flowers.’ It was so cute, and it was wonderful to think that a week after we made the delivery, her flowers were still well enough to go to the rehab place,” said Kothe.
By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors
Why Indianapolis? Five years ago, Betty Stilwell, then chief philanthropy officer at IU Health, mentioned the organization to [now-RAF Indianapolis Executive Director, Alison] Kothe. Stilwell said she had been talking with Jay Hicks, president and CEO of Prime Care Properties and Management. After meeting RAF’s founder and joining its national board, he thought Indianapolis was ready to become involved.
“Hicks was really the mover and shaker behind the Random Acts of Flowers in Indianapolis,” Kothe said. Once the commitment was made, things moved quickly. The first seed-money house party was in March of this year, and the new 501(c)3 moved into its space in September and started deliveries the next month.
As of early December, over 1,245 arrangements had been delivered to area hospitals and nursing homes.
(Charitable Advisors, 12/12/16)
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When Camille Kennedy enters patient rooms at Stanford Health Care, she is reminded of the isolation she felt when she was admitted to the hospital after an unexpected trip to the Emergency Department.
“When you end up in the hospital, you may find yourself in a place you did not plan to be,” she said. “You think your life is going one way, and it takes a turn.”
These days, Kennedy uses her experience as a patient as motivation to help break through the isolation other patients experience. Kennedy is executive director for Random Acts of Flowers Silicon Valley, an organization that delivers recycled flowers and encouragement to Stanford hospital patients each month, and to patients at hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the Bay Area.
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Just as each bouquet made by our volunteers is different, each recipient has a unique story. As the last day unfolded along our GROW 2016 fundraising tour – which included stops at our branches in Tampa Bay, Knoxville, San Francisco, and Chicago – our celebrity guest speaker, HGTV host Chris Lambton, had a particularly touching visit with a woman named Emilie.
Emilie is a resident at Dobson Plaza, a senior care facility in Evanston, IL. On this cool November morning, she was surprised and charmed by the handsome stranger bringing her flowers on a Thursday. And Chris found himself not just delivering hope, but receiving the kind of joy one only gets from giving.
The special moment was amplified when, after delivering bouquets given new life by Random Acts of Flowers Chicago to some 30 residents at Dobson Plaza, Chris retraced his steps down the hallway to leave. When he stopped to say a final goodbye to Emilie, he was moved to see her clutching the vase of repurposed flowers he had given her earlier that day.
“That’s powerful,” Chris said. “There is absolutely no doubt that what you are doing is meaningful when you see something like that.”
We learned more of Emilie’s story when her son, David, reached out to Chris via email the next day –
She moved to Dobson Plaza three years ago from her hometown of Springfield, where she spent 35 years as a Montessori teacher before her retirement. Despite being much closer to one of her sons and her grandchildren, the transition from Springfield to Evanston was difficult.
Hi Chris,
You don’t know me – my name is David, and I am the son of Emilie, who I believe you met yesterday during your visit to Dobson Plaza nursing home in Evanston, Illinois.
Dobson staff told me that you brought Mom flowers and spent a little time with her, and I just wanted to say thank you. I’m sure this made her day. I see her every weekend, but all visitors are appreciated. The transition for her from Springfield, where she is from, to Evanston has been difficult for her, and little acts of kindness go a long way.
Again, many, many thanks. I truly appreciate it, and I know she did as well.
David later shared, “In the process of getting Mom through that transition, I’ve come to realize that, when you reach a certain age, the best thing you could give to a person is time.” Chris’s visit was just that, a personal moment of kindness and a step out of Emilie’s everyday routine. David added. “After Chris Lambton’s visit, Mom talked to me about it and she just lit up. She was touched by the flowers, and I – in turn – was touched because, again, that’s something that someone beyond our family did for her. It really meant a lot. It meant a lot to her, and it meant a lot to me.”
News of David’s message to Chris along with photographs of Emilie with her bouquet spread across the Random Acts of Flowers branches and our national headquarters. In tandem, they affected us deeply and reminded us of the ever-expanding ripple effect of delivering hope and encouragement. Chris’s delivery touched Emilie and her family which, in turn, touched our organization as a whole, revitalizing us and refocusing us on the value of our mission.
Sometimes an idea is so simple in concept, but makes a huge impact. The idea of making people’s lives brighter by hand-delivering flower arrangements is the driving motivation behind Random Acts of Flowers, which opened a location in South Broad Ripple in mid-October.
Random Acts of Flowers is a non-profit organization that recycles used bouquets and delivers them to hospitals and nursing homes across the country. Started in Knoxville, Tenn., in 2008, this simple idea of delivering flowers to people in need has expanded to multiple cities, including Indianapolis.
Lindsay Potter, program manager at the newly opened Indianapolis location at 1057 E 54th St., is excited to bring this spirit of giving to Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Random Acts of Flowers location operates with a small staff, and the majority of help comes from volunteers. Potter said she loves the positive impact the organization has on the volunteers.
“Here’s something you can do that feels good, where you can say to someone, ‘I live in your community and I care about you and I want you to be happy.’”
Writer & Photographer / Stephanie Duncan