Month: July 2018

Random Acts of Flowers Turns 10 years old (WATE, 7.24.2018)

Post author By rafindianapolis
Post date July 24, 2018
No Comments on Random Acts of Flowers Turns 10 years old (WATE, 7.24.2018)

“A Knoxville-based nonprofit has been bringing smiles to hundreds of thousands of people’s faces for 10 years now, and it all started with one bouquet of flowers. Random Acts of Flowers celebrated its 10th birthday Tuesday.

Fran Scheidt has been constructing the floral creations since the very beginning. ‘It was about a third the size of this,’ she said describing their warehouse.

In 10 years Random Acts of Flowers has expanded to Tampa Bay, Chicago and Indianapolis, and they have handed out 340,000 bouquets made from donated flowers, in hospitals, assisted living facilites and hospice care. About 90,000 of those have been in Knoxville where it all began.

‘I like to be around people, but I like what we’re doing,’ Scheidt said.

It has been 10 years of brightening days with beautiful blossoms.”

Tags 10th Anniversary, Deliveries, delivering hope, Flowers, Larsen Jay, milestone, mission, news, nonprofit, random acts of flowers, random acts of kindness, recycled flowers, repurposed flowers, WATE

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Random Acts of Flowers Celebrates 10 Years of Delivering Hope and Encouragement

Post author By rafindianapolis
Post date July 20, 2018
No Comments on Random Acts of Flowers Celebrates 10 Years of Delivering Hope and Encouragement

A decade ago, Random Acts of Flowers (RAF) made its first official delivery. With a strong vision and a simple mission, co-founders Larsen and Adrian Jay started what has become a nationwide phenomenon. Over the past ten years, Random Acts of Flowers has delivered more than 340,000 bouquets of recycled flowers to individuals in hospitals, assisted living facilities, and hospice, and the organization has repurposed more than 356,000 vases, all thanks to the more than 161,000 hours put in by dedicated volunteers. Currently, the RAF mission serves four communities in the US – Knoxville, Tampa Bay, Chicago, and Indianapolis – and has inspired more than two dozen smaller organizations in communities from coast to coast, as well as in the UK.

From Sunday, July 22^nd through Tuesday, July 24^th, Random Acts of Flowers employees from all four branches and the national headquarters will converge on Knoxville for a company retreat focused on making the next ten years of delivering hope even more successful than the last ten have been.

Knox County mayor Tim Burchett has proclaimed Tuesday July 24^th to be Random Acts of Flowers Day.

And, that evening, RAF staff will be joined by board members, donors, volunteers, supporters, and community members for the 10^thBirthday Happy Hour party at Clancy’s Tavern in downtown Knoxville.

And, for the past month, supporters have been part of the Random Acts of Flowers 10^th Anniversary Challenge, participating in a friendly challenge to collectively raise $10,000 in honor of 10 years of delivering hope. The person who raises the most during this one month challenge will receive one bouquet of flowers a month (sent to the person of their choice) for a whole year – compliments of RAF’s friends at The Flower Pot in Knoxville. Further, a generous donor has agreed to match the donations made through the challenge.

As challenge participant Tiffany Gardner says, “In our busy lives, it’s easy to forget that there are people in communities everywhere who are experiencing health hardships. In hospitals, hospice, and assisted living facilities, people are in need of a reminder that they haven’t been forgotten and that there are people who care about their well-being. RAF does that every day.”

Random Acts of Flowers looks to make more than 110,000 deliveries in 2018 and crest 500,000 deliveries by the end of 2019.