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Our volunteers are the heartbeat of our mission of delivering hope. To date, they have #donated more than 480,000,000 heartbeats. That’s more than 100,000 hours of time, talent, and love. There is not a word big enough for how grateful we are. Thank You!
(WTHR Indianapolis, 3.31.2017)
Whether it’s an anniversary, Valentines or Mother’s Day, flowers seem to convey love more and more. Flowers are also often sent to say “get well” and that’s the focus of an organization relatively new to Indianapolis.
Stunning and striking, they line the shelves of Kroger – the world’s largest florist. “Anywhere from 5 to 7 days is typically a good rule of thumb for the shelf life of flowers. Everyday we’re going through and looking at the freshness of the flower,” Kroger Floral Sales Manager Sheila Fair said. “All of our stores have multiple shipments every single week and we always want the freshest flowers out there, so every day we’re going through and looking at the freshness of the flower.”
But what happens when they get a little “long in the stem?” “We treat our floral department just like any perishable department in the store; just like we treat bananas in produce or fried chicken in the deli,” Fair said. About half a dozen central Indiana Kroger stores now donate them to Random Acts of Flowers.
by Natalie Rothstein, MA, LPC, Psychotherapist, Urban Balance
In December 2016, I wrote a blog post on behalf of Urban Balance about Random Acts of Flowers and the incredible contribution they’ve made to the Chicago community and nationwide. Random Acts of Flowers brings donated flowers that have been rearranged into beautiful bouquets to patients at hospitals during their stays. The nonprofit has been able to touch the lives of more than 196,000 patients nationwide and has also reached a wide population of patients. The organization has continuously been growing and reaching more and more patients in the communities that it serves.
Upon learning about Random Acts of Flowers, I was warmed to my core. I know the impact of something bright during a dark time can be profound and amazing. The giving the organization does is a beautiful and important way to help patients during hospital stays, which can be incredibly draining and difficult. The added brightness might not change circumstances, but it can truly make a difficult time feel less gloomy and more hopeful.
As a therapist (Licensed Professional Counselor) at Urban Balance, a counseling practice based out of Chicago, I am particularly aware of how gratitude and positivity can play a powerful role. I have seen the effect both personally and for my clients, and I often emphasize the importance of incorporating a gratitude practice into one’s life. I feel strongly that expressing gratitude fosters hope and strength to manage when life may feel filled with negativity.
Receiving flowers during a hospital stay gives a patient something to be grateful for and brings positivity to their environment. Regardless of the reason someone is there, being in the hospital can be a very overwhelming time; but, brightness through the gift of flowers can help hope blossom. It’s important to acknowledge that sadness and difficulty are very real parts of being a patient, but allowing oneself to look to positives is extremely helpful for a person’s mental wellness.
The mind and body are completely connected. Being physically unwell can take a tremendous toll on someone’s emotional wellbeing, and this is where the impact of hope and brightness come in. One beautiful bouquet can be a guiding point in the emotional healing process for someone. In our most fragile states, we need positives that can help us through. This is why what Random Acts of Flowers does is so important. Giving to others during their difficult time can have such monumental benefits on their spirit. I commend them for taking such an important concept, cultivating it, and making it flourish.
I am impressed by the amazing work that Random Acts of Flowers does for the mental wellness of hospital patients in the communities it serves. Their work creates a chain of care and support. The volunteers who create the flower arrangements not only receive personal fulfillment, but also know that they are helping recipients feel like a perfect stranger did something to brighten their day. That is a wonderful testament to what kindness can look like. I look forward to hearing about all of the work that they continue to do.
This is so Awesomely RandomIn 2017 The Grace Initiative started a new project – “We invite you to join us and explore this exciting new initiative for 2017: Donations by the Dozen. The Grace Initiative Foundation Tree wants to put some #GraceInIt by donating $12 per day to a different nonprofit for each day of 2017. We hope to see this unfold into a wonderful conversation, new friends and partners, and potential inspiration for all as we take this journey.” And, Random Acts of Flowers was lucky enough to be their Day 68!
“My friend Katie and I co-conspire for small and large Random Acts of Kindness. I’ve been sitting on this great organization called Random Act of Flowers for a while, because I thought it would be so cute for Mother’s Day. Then I thought”wait, it’s supposed to be random.”
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The cheerful riot of flower petals spilling out of Cynthia Fincher’s car was only rivaled by the sweet perfume of the arrangements drawing stares from visitors to Hancock Regional Hospital.
Fincher, a volunteer for the Hancock Regional Hospital Guild, brought 40 flower arrangements from Random Acts of Flowers, an Indianapolis organization that collects flowers from florists, grocery stores, events and even funerals and has volunteers re-arrange them into bouquets that are donated to Indianapolis-area hospital patients.
The Greenfield resident had been looking for a way to volunteer for the hospital that was in her “wheelhouse,” she said. When she heard about Random Acts of Flowers, the hospital’s volunteer coordinator Dawn Earlywine thought it fit in with Circle of Kindness, a recent initiative to promote acts of kindness by hospital staff.
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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Friday, Feb. 17 is National Random Acts of Kindness Day (RAK), and WISH TV got involved with the help of a former Colts player.
24-Hour News 8’s Joe Melillo spent his morning continuing the tradition of spreading random acts of kindness throughout Daybreak. RAK is a day everyone can get involved in and celebrate the “pay it forward” mentality…He surprised a man with a free cup of coffee at Starbucks, paid for two people’s meals at the Donut Shop on 56th Street, and then he went to Community East Hospital with Random Acts of Flowers.
by Katie Hess of LotusWei
Flowers bring joy to our faces and light up our lives. Being around them simply makes us feel better, and scientific studies have shown that flowers in a hospital room can even help us heal faster by promoting lower stress and perceived pain levels.
But the magic of flowers goes even deeper than this feel-good reaction we have to their presence. Imagine walking in a field of your favorite flower. Or burying your face in its petals. That which you are feeling – whether in reality or through visualization – is indicative of the benefits and special qualities of that particular flower.
Every flower on the planet has its own unique quality. When we think of a Peony flower, it makes us feel very different than when we think of a Rose or a Daisy or Orchid. Some flowers bring us joy, others invoke love, peace or even help us sleep more deeply. Each flower contains a particular healing quality, feeling or state of mind within us. Even if we have not been aware of or articulated this knowledge before, we intuitively know this about flowers.
Excerpted from Flowerevolution: Blooming into Your Full Potential with the Magic of Flowers.
Flowers connect us with our loved ones. Giving flowers to is a profound expression of a particular essence or feeling that cannot always be expressed in words. When we buy flowers for other people, we consider them as we choose the flowers. We access that “feeling” part of us to see what kind of flowers suit them or embody the particular feeling that we want to convey.
Each flower embodies a unique quality. Irises, for example, evoke an elegant and wild creativity, with their royal purple, paintbrush-like tips that ruffle out into full bloom and the bold streak of yellow in the center. Gerbera daisies, on the other hand, are all joy; they’re expansive, radiating liveliness and vitality with their radial shape like the sun. Orchids are an entirely different story, otherworldly in their exquisite sophistication and beauty.
Imagine for a moment giving an orchid to someone. Now visualize giving the same person a bouquet of peonies. Next, see yourself giving them a bouquet of sunflowers. How does it feel? Each gift of flowers feels totally different, right? And they will likely provoke different responses from the recipient.
Even when you buy cut flowers or a potted plant for yourself, your choice expresses or brings out a certain quality in you. Some flowers you feel particularly drawn to, and others you simply don’t. More often than not, the flowers you are drawn to are not the same as the flowers the next person is attracted to. Based on our internal landscapes, we gravitate to specific flowers for the way they make us feel.
These preferences are not based on traditional symbolism; they come from understanding the flowers through our hearts. We already speak the language of flowers, without knowing it. The flowers that we are most attracted to are those that have qualities we want to embody or that dissolve, shift, or awaken something inside us.
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What’s more, these qualities can be captured, collected and infused into water, Mother Nature’s greatest recording device, into what are known as flower elixirs. Different from aromatherapy, flower elixirs don’t have a scent and work through the body’s acupuncture meridians. It is a liquid infusion of a flower or plant’s ‘chi’ or life-force, whereas an essential oil is distilled or extracted from the plant into a highly aromatic oil.
I’ve spent the last 15 years working with flower elixirs and observing their transformative effects on people. At a time when we are more distracted, fatigued and stressed than ever, flower elixirs not only help us be our best selves, but they also show us our full potential. By spending time around them – putting them in our environment, using their essential oils (aromatherapeutic) or flower elixirs (taken internally) – it is possible to experience the specific healing qualities of different flowers.
Flowers have been a well-loved way to brighten up our home or someone’s day, but they are also the best remedy you’ve likely never even heard of.
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Katie Hess is a flower alchemist and the founder of LOTUSWEI, one of the world’s leading floral apothecaries. After 15 years of independent research of flower and plant-based healing, her flower-powered community is thriving in over 15 countries. Her transformative elixirs having been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, The LA Times, Sunset, and Organic Spa Magazine. A lifelong spiritual seeker, Katie has studied meditation and mindful-awareness techniques with several Tibetan Buddhist masters, including the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa, Tibet’s next generation leader. Choose the flowers you’re most attracted to and find out what it means about you at: www.lotuswei.com.
If you’d like to discover more about flower elixirs, their magical abilities, and the activating qualities of individual flowers, I just came out with a book: Flowerevolution: Blooming Into Your Full Potential with the Magic of Flowers.
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Random Acts of Flowers Indianapolis’s Program Manager, Lindsey Potter says “The wonderful thing about RAF is that it’s a very simple concept that has a huge impact. There isn’t anyone in our community who has not been touched by the experience of having a loved one require healthcare assistance. Everyone can relate to the fear, the stress, and often just the boredom of being hospitalized. We do what we do in order to be bright spot in what can otherwise be a difficult and trying time.”
We spoke with Alison Kothe, executive director of Random Acts of Flowers Indianapolis, and she explained that flowers are gathered, arranged and delivered by volunteers. She says individual hospitals may direct their team to a particular floor or group of rooms, and from there the volunteers are turned loose to deliver a random burst of color and joy.
“I think this is an important service because there is growing evidence that proves flowers can truly help a patient heal,” she says. “There is a direct correlation between emotional wellbeing and physical wellbeing. They feed off one another. The receipt of an unexpected burst of color as well as an unexpected act of kindness from a perfect stranger with a warm and caring smile is a perfect formula for giving someone a spiritual boost.”
(Indiana University Methodist Health Foundation, Indianapolis, 1.19.2017)