Category: RAF in the News

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Newsroom RAF in the News

What happens to the Valentine’s Day flowers that don’t get sold? (CNN, 2.15.2020)

Valentine’s Day represents different things to different people: Love, consumerism, chocolate for breakfast. But for the floral industry, it’s essentially a national holiday — and demand is higher than ever.

Flower business booms during Valentine’s season: Of the millions of Americans predicted to spend $24.7 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts this year, about 37% of them will buy flowers.

 

This year, Latam Cargo told CNN it flew more than 12,600 tons of flowers grown in Colombia and Ecuador around the US, Australia and Europe — a 45% higher amount than in 2019.

But of all the millions of buds and blooms that flooded florists and grocery stores this Valentine’s Day, not all of them ended up in someone’s living room. What happens to the bouquets that don’t make the cut?

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

 

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Blog RAF in the News

A Testimony to Flower Power (Floral Business, Spring 2019)

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Blog Knoxville Patron Society News Releases Newsletter Newsroom RAF in the News

Getting to Know Larsen Jay (Knoxville Focus, 3.31.19)

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Getting to Know Larsen Jay

by Mike Steely

In this week’s Getting to Know feature, The Knoxville Focus chatted with someone who positively impacts other people, people he may never meet, and what he does comes as a welcomed surprise and sometimes brings tears of gratitude.

Larsen Jay is a husband, father, Knox County Commissioner and founder of Random Act of Flowers. Most people don’t know that Jay also has a background in TV and movie production.


How has your position as founder and CEO of Random Acts of Flowers worked for you?

It has been thrilling, half terrifying and always exciting as we continue to help the community. My wife and I were involved in many things before this, like bringing the ice rink back downtown, starting the East Tennessee Chili Cook Off and the Daddy-Daughter Dance, restoring a historic building and serving on nonprofit boards. We started Random Acts of Flowers as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and thought we’d hand it off after it got started. It accepts no public funds, everything is donated and nothing is wasted. We exist through grants, corporate support, and private, direct fund raising.

We now have four branches around the country, 18 employees and over 2,000 volunteers and are approaching our 500,000th floral delivery. It’s going very well.[/fusion_text][button link=”http://knoxfocus.com/archives/this-weeks-focus/getting-know-larsen-jay/” color=”default” size=”xlarge” stretch=”” type=”” shape=”” target=”_blank” title=”” gradient_colors=”|” gradient_hover_colors=”|” accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” bevel_color=”” border_width=”” icon=”” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” modal=”” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”1″ animation_offset=”” alignment=”center” class=”” id=””]Read the Full Story Here[/button]

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Blog Chicago Patron Society Knoxville Patron Society RAF in the News

RAF on Flower Power with Jill (March 2019)

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Random Acts of Flowers Has Recycled
Over 400,000 Bouquets for Patients & Nursing Homes

In 2007, Random Acts of Flowers founder Larsen Jay was in a near-fatal accident landing him in a Tennessee hospital bed.  Aside from expert medical care, he also credits the bouquets of flowers generously sent by friends and family in helping him heal and persevere through the multiple surgeries and challenging recovery process.

Leaving the hospital, he noticed how some patients didn’t have cheery flowers to give them an emotional lift as he had. The first Random Acts of Flowers donation was made that day when he re-purposed his bouquets and delivered them from his wheelchair.[/fusion_text][button link=”http://www.flowerpowerwithjill.com/random-acts-of-flowers-has-recycled-over-400000-cheery-bouquets/” color=”default” size=”xlarge” stretch=”” type=”” shape=”” target=”_self” title=”” gradient_colors=”|” gradient_hover_colors=”|” accent_color=”” accent_hover_color=”” bevel_color=”” border_width=”” icon=”” icon_position=”left” icon_divider=”no” modal=”” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”1″ animation_offset=”” alignment=”center” class=”” id=””]Read Full Coverage Here[/button]

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Blog RAF in the News

Festival of Trees back at Indiana Historical Society (WISH-TV, 12.4.2018)

Festival of Trees back at Indiana Historical Society
(WISH-TV, 12.4.2018)

We are so thrilled to be part of the community participating in the Festival of Trees at the Indiana Historical Society. Check out our coverage on WISH-TV and then head down to see the 80 trees in person. Don’t forget to vote for RAF Indy as your favorite tree!

 

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Newsroom RAF in the News

Random Acts of Flowers Bring Smiles, Aromas, 50,000th Bouquet (IndyStar, 11/29.2018)

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Random Acts of Flowers Bring Smiles, Aromas, 50,000th Bouquet (IndyStar, 11/29.2018)

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This team of rockstar volunteers created more than 200 arrangements to be delivered to patients at Eskenazi Health —one of which was the 50,000th delivery since our launch in Indy!

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Random Acts of Flowers volunteers deliver their 50,000th bouquet of flowers to Ana Ramos, right, and her new daughter, Keilani Pena Ramos, at Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. The newest branch of the national floral nonprofit has been delivering the flowers to patients to offer hope, encouragement and smiles, for about two years. Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

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Claire Alexander, from left, Joan Perry, and Kathy Bradfield, with Random Acts of Flowers, get ready to deliver their 50,000th bouquet of flowers at Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018. The newest branch of the national floral nonprofit has been delivering the flowers to patients to offer hope, encouragement and smiles, for about two years. Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

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See the Indy Star’s Full Coverage HERE!

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RAF in the News

Everything You Need to Know About Our Origin Story

Random Acts of Flowers’ journey started with the vision of one man who saw firsthand the healing power of flowers.

Nine years ago today, our founder Larsen Jay had a near-fatal accident that changed his life forever. While repairing a building, he fell off a ladder and suffered massive injuries. He was rushed to the hospital, where he spent several weeks in a Level 1 trauma unit.

While Larsen was in the hospital, he received many flowers and saw their healing effect. As soon as he was able, he began taking his flowers to other patients, and the idea for Random Acts of Flowers was born.

A year after his accident he opened the first branch in Knoxville, Tenn. At that time, he said, “We had no idea what we were doing, but we knew we had to do it.”

Now RAF has five branches nationwide, and we’re looking forward to making our 200,000th delivery in early 2017. Thanks, Larsen, for sharing your vision — and to all the partners, volunteers, employees, donors, sponsors and recipients who’ve helped create a culture of kindness in our communities.

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News Releases RAF in the News

Encouraging random acts of kindness among kids

Chicago Parent
By: Kelly Q. Anderson

Nicole Jakob, a North Shore area mom, was inspired by two things: a love of art and a loathing of participation trophies. In an era ripe with humble-bragging and social media ‘Likes,’ she set out to promote something different: anonymous altruism.

“I wanted to encourage kids to do something kind when no one was watching them, when they would not be recognized for it,” Jakob professed. “That being said, if you’re going to sell kids on it, I knew that it had to be fun or they wouldn’t do it. So I kept in mind that it had to be edgy and engaging.”

Three years of research birthed a solution: Renegade Made Craft Kits. The craft kit goal is making people happy and teaching kindness without the promise of reward or recognition–and that doing so is actually crazy fun. All kits include a black renegade bandit mask so that kids can get kind under a sneaky veil of anonymity.

Kit themes include:

Random Acts of Flowers

Bouquets bring out the best smiles, right? Find out firsthand as you assemble your own paper flower bouquet to be placed in public for the taking. Bonus: Each bloom explains the free floral gift and encourages the recipient to pass the positivity around by creating their own kind gestures.

Read Full Story Here

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RAF in the News

RAF Annual Conference – Day One

What a great first day at the RAF Annual Conference!

Cindy McConkey Cox presents at RAF Annual Conference 2016

Informative speakers …

Emily Moore at RAF Annual Conference 2016

Lots of new ideas …

Big Love Bus at RAF Annual Conference 2016

And the Big Love Bus!

Looking forward to Day Two!

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RAF in the News

Welcome to the RAF Annual Conference!

We’re thrilled to welcome our branches from around the country to this year’s RAF annual conference. Over the next few days we’ll share highlights from the retreat, but for now, let’s kick it off by giving a big Vol welcome to our teams from Chicago, Tampa Bay, Silicon Valley and Indianapolis!