2016 was an INCREDIBLE year here at Random Acts of Flowers. Thank you to everyone who supported our mission of delivering hope!
[vimeo id=”198895787″ width=”600″ height=”350″ autoplay=”no” api_params=”” class=””]
[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”” padding_right=”” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]
[/fusion_text][imageframe lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”http://digital.modernluxury.com/publication/?i=371630&ver=html5&p=30″ linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] 
[/imageframe][/fullwidth]
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.
When celebrity landscaper Chris Lambton joined us for GROW – a series of events benefiting Random Acts of Flowers’ branches across the country – we knew that his presence would add some stardust to the occasion. What none of us realized, however, is what an impact Chris’s participation in the RAF mission – arranging bouquets and delivering them to hospitals and healthcare facilities coast-to-coast – would have on him. As he and his lovely wife Peyton eagerly await the arrival of their first child (due any day now), the experience gave Chris a chance to think about the impact flowers have had in his own life, as well as experience the joy of delivering hope and encouragement first-hand .
What motivated you to take to the road for two weeks for GROW at a time when you own family was about to grow significantly with the birth of your first child?
(Laughs sheepishly) Have you ever been around woman in her ninth month of pregnancy? The emotional swings were getting pretty unpredictable!
No, seriously, I have known and worked with Cindy McConkey Cox when she was Scripps Networks, the parent company of HGTV and DIY Network. She’s now the COO at Random Acts of Flowers, and once she shared with me the mission, I was in.
It resonated with me and my own experience as my mother battled MLS. My mom was a gardener and loved flowers. So when her health really started to decline and it was hard for her to putter in her garden any more, one of her friends brought her a bouquet every week, and I saw how much that meant to her. After Mom passed, her friend continued to bring a bouquet to my dad and my brothers and me for the next six months, and it was an important part of our healing process.
All that is to say I know the impact flowers can have on someone’s emotional health and well-being.
What did you do at each of the branch locations?
I was the guest speaker at the GROW fundraising events, but really they allowed me to be part of the mission. So of course I met donors and sponsors. But the fun part was going into their workshops and arranging flowers alongside their volunteers and even better was going on the deliveries. I delivered bouquets to hospital patients in Tampa Bay, people fighting Parkinson’s Disease in Knoxville, veterans in Silicon Valley and the elderly in a low-income senior care facility in Chicago.
Was there a favorite moment for you?
I really loved spending time with the volunteers. Random Acts of Flowers does its mission with thousands of volunteers who love what they do, working with the flowers and spreading hope and encouragement to those who are most vulnerable in their communities. But the deliveries. Wow! Every one of them was different. But the one thing that was the same – and the thing that I won’t forget – was how much it meant to each person I sat with and handed a bouquet to know that some stranger, someone they’ve never met, cared enough to bring a little joy into their day.
Editor’s Note: On November 22nd, Chris and his wife Peyton welcomed their daughter, Lyla, into the world. All of us at Random Acts of Flowers send our heartfelt congratulations!
November 8, 2016 – Lavender, rosemary and raised planter boxes full of vegetables one could tend to from a wheelchair. Hydrangeas. Azaleas.
Those are just some of the elements that landscaper and television personality Chris Lambton, 39, had in mind last week for Dobson Plaza, a nursing home with 100 residents in Evanston.
Along with bringing colors, smells and honeybees to the nursing home’s side yard, “it’s healthy for the residents to be outside, to get their hands dirty and then eat what they grow,” Lambton said.
[vimeo id=”190280967″ width=”800″ height=”550″ autoplay=”no” api_params=”” class=””]
On October 18, 2016, RAF Knoxville’s Executive Director Jen Sheehan appeared on WATE to talk about GROW 2016.