Tag: repurposed flowers

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Chicago Patron Society Knoxville Patron Society Newsroom

National Development Director Puts Down Roots to Help Random Acts of Flowers Bloom

National Development Director Puts Down Roots
to Help Random Acts of Flowers Bloom

Random Acts of Flowers has added Sarah Elizabeth Hauge to its national team as National Director of Development. Hauge will be based at the Random Acts of Flowers national headquarters in Knoxville, TN, where she will focus on securing national partners for the nonprofit, but her work also will impact the five branches located in cities across the country.

Hauge is uniquely qualified for the position, having worked the past five years in financial management with RAF partner Pershing Yoakley & Associates, P.C. which focuses primarily on serving the healthcare industry. Prior to that, Hauge was responsible for corporate relations and development with the United States Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C., where she developed and managed a yearly fundraising strategy to retain a portfolio of approximately 30 corporate accounts totaling $3 million in value. In this role, she served as the primary point of contact for current and prospective partners, negotiating existing and new corporate contacts.

At Random Acts of Flowers, Hauge will develop and implement the agency’s fundraising strategy and donor stewardship plan to take the organization to the next level. She will work directly with the RAF executive team and its national board of directors to manage a comprehensive fundraising program including annual giving, leadership gifts, corporate and foundation grants, third-party fundraising and planned giving. As the dedicated fundraising professional for Random Acts of Flowers, Hauge also will assist the Knoxville, Tampa Bay, Chicago, Indianapolis, and Silicon Valley branches in constructing development plans to be implemented on the local level.

Beyond her professional experience, Hauge was drawn to Random Acts of Flowers through a very personal connection to the floral industry. Her grandparents owned Hauge’s Flowers in Morgantown, West Virginia, where she spent many childhood summers learning about the floral industry. One of the most important things from her grandparents was, “Whether for a funeral, a wedding, or a simple arrangement a husband picked up to surprise his wife, flowers meant something special to a person or a family. I knew that I have impacted someone’s world for the better.”

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Newsroom

Random Acts of Flowers Knoxville Makes 75,000th Delivery

Random Acts of Flowers Knoxville
Makes 75,000th Delivery

Random Acts of Flowers Knoxville celebrated a big milestone yesterday,
delivering its 75,000th bouquet to a recipient at Parkwest Hospital!

Longtime volunteer liaison, Rita Stroud, was very excited to be a part of this special delivery. “I remember we had 25 bud vases to give out for the first delivery at Parkwest Hospital back in 2009. Immediately, it was such a blessing. Every recipient is genuinely surprised and excited when we come into their room with a beautiful arrangement. I absolutely love it, and I am so happy to be the liaison at Parkwest.”

RAF volunteers Rena McAlister and Andrea Murphy join Stroud each month for the delivery. Mcalister said, “Early in 2009, I read an article about a new volunteer outreach program called Random Acts of Flowers. Little did I know I would receive so much joy, fun, and satisfaction for giving just a few hours of my time each week.” Murphy, a volunteer since November 2010, added, “I want my son to realize it really takes little effort to positively impact someone’s day when you give just a little love and kindness. It just takes small gestures, time, and a desire to leave a lasting impression.”

Random Acts of Flowers began when founder Larsen Jay used a personal experience to inspire a simple yet generous mission. After a near-fatal accident, Jay was amazed by the amount of support and encouragement he received as his hospital room filled with beautiful flowers. He soon realized that several of his fellow patients did not receive visitors or flowers, and it became his personal mission to share the floral encouragement he had received. The bouquets he shared with other patients that fateful day serve as the inspiration behind RAF’s mission to improve the emotional health and well-being of individuals in health care facilities by delivering recycled flowers, encouragement, and personal moments of kindness.

“For more than nine years, the dedicated team at Random Acts of Flowers have focused on the simplicity of kindness, compassion and the delivery of hope. We find great comfort in knowing that the emotional impact of every recycled bouquet delivered in a healthcare facility has a ripple-effect far beyond the recipient. This significant milestone serves as an ongoing testament to the volunteer spirit and the generosity behind all who support the Random Acts of Flowers’ mission,” Jay said.

See WBIR’s Coverage HERE…

 

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Newsroom

Random Acts of Flowers surprise Barrington residents (Current in Carmel, 7.15.17)

Random Acts of Flowers surprise Barrington residents

(Current in Carmel, 7.15.17)

Determine, Inc. a global provider of industry-leading cloud solutions, recently teamed with Random Acts of Flowers as a team-building exercise. The employees spent the day arranging, delivering and surprising nursing home residents with the bouquets, including at The Barrington of Carmel.

“Our mission is to improve the well-being of people in hospitals and nursing homes. People are attracted to our mission for a lot of different reasons. There’s not anyone who can’t benefit from someone in their community coming in and reminding them that they’re not alone and they care about them,” said Lindsay Potter, program manager at Random Acts of Flowers.

SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE

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Blog Chicago Patron Society Knoxville Patron Society

The Longest Day: Celebrating Lives Well Lived

The Longest Day: Celebrating Lives Well Lived

Today, many of us will celebrate the longest day of the year – the summer solstice – by spending time outside with our friends and family, soaking up the sun, and reveling in the fact that we’ve made it another year around the sun while twilight slowly settles around us.

But, for many, this Longest Day has an even greater meaning. The Alzheimer’s Association of America has adopted the summer solstice as their Longest Day and they say “The Longest Day is all about love. Love for all those affected by Alzheimer’s disease.” It’s a day to celebrate the vibrancy of the lives of those individuals affected by this disease and to give them and their families an opportunity to raise money while participating in activities and hobbies that they’ve always shared.

“My elderly father who suffers from Alzheimer’s was recently admitted to UT Medical Center. We are still here. He was placed on the oncology wing for lack of space elsewhere. Cancer patients who we have hope will beat their disease tend to receive lots of flowers and visitors. Once someone has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a disease we can only hope to manage not cure, friends and even family begin to distance themselves. I had just thought that I should get Pop some flowers myself when a gentle knock came at the door. The sweetest lady came in carrying a bright yellow basket full of carnations, hydrangeas, daffodils and sunflowers. My dad was so excited. He said, “Those flowers brighten up the whole room, don’t they?” They sure do! It is amazing how something as small as a basket of flowers can mean so much. Many, many thanks.” – Joanie H., Knoxville

Here at Random Acts of Flowers, we encounter recipients facing Alzheimer’s disease at the hospitals and assisted living facilities that we visit on a regular basis. For them – and for us – a bouquet delivery is a welcome bright spot in a world that is turned upside down.

Collage of woman receiving flowers and flower bouquet“To all of you at RAF – I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the flower arrangements you brought to Moldaw Residences in Palo Alto. I am especially grateful for the flowers in our Memory Support rooms. My husband has been there since it opened in 2009, and flowers brightened his room until the last petal fell, brightening the days for him, me, and all the caretakers. What pleasure you have given to all of us, and I want you to know how much I appreciate the surprise of RAF.” – Marcia E., Silicon Valley

 

And, research has shown that a familiar smell can bring back memories from the past (see our recent blogpost Tuesdays with Flowers: Making Memories Blossom with Random Acts of Flowers for more on the subject).

Sunny Biden from The Pat Summitt Foundation (an organization fighting Alzheimer’s disease with a comprehensive approach, awarding grants to organizations that provide research to treat, prevent, cure, and ultimately eradicate this disease; education and awareness of Alzheimer’s, its onset and treatment; and support services to patients, their families and caregivers) says that “with Alzheimer’s the first thing to go is, short-term memory, so bringing flowers to someone… there’s always something nostalgic about a flower that reminds someone of a memory. So, if someone gets a certain flower that they loved, it might bring back a childhood memory that they’re more inclined to remember than a short-term memory.”

Every day of the year, Random Acts of Flowers uses flowers to bring renewed hope and new moments of kindness to recipients battling illness, injury, and the aging process. Today, on The Longest Day, we would like to remind you to take a few of these “extra” minutes to spend time with the people you love – do something special with them, for them, or in their honor.

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Knoxville Patron Society Newsroom

“A Jungle of Joy and Happiness”: The Knoxville Mercury Discovers the Roots of RAF

“A Jungle of Joy and Happiness”:
The Knoxville Mercury Discovers the Roots of RAF

Coury Turczyn of The Knoxville Mercury spent a little time with our Founder and CEO Larsen Jay and found out more about the roots of our mission, how we’ve bloomed in Knoxville, and how our branches stretch across the country.

“Random Acts of Flowers may be one of Knoxville’s most well known nonprofits. That’s because its mission makes so much sense that it’s remarkable no one thought to do it before 2008: The national organization takes flowers and bouquets that would otherwise be discarded and redistributes them to patients in hospitals, nursing homes, senior care facilities, and hospices. It provides some emotional well being and encouragement when people need it most.

As it approaches its 250,000th delivery nine years later, we checked in with founder Larsen Jay on how his brainstorm has evolved into a national phenomenon” —

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE…

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Newsroom

RAF Indianapolis Program Manager Lindsay Potter on WIBC’s Caregiver Crossing

RAF Indianapolis Program Manager Lindsay Potter
on WIBC’s Caregiver Crossing

“There’s all kinds of research on how flowers have the power to enhance recover…we use those as a vessel for connection.”

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Blog

Tuesdays with Flowers: Making Memories Blossom with Random Acts of Flowers

Tuesdays with Flowers: Making Memories Blossom
with Random Acts of Flowers


Describing Stephanie Mataya as a caregiver feels like a vast understatement once you get to know her. A full-time speech pathologist, wife, mom, stepmom, and dog/cat/lizard mom, Stephanie spends her time bettering the lives of the people (and animals) who surround her and nurturing a culture of care and compassion in her community. For the past fifteen years, Stephanie has been a speech pathologist at BayCare, one of the largest healthcare systems in Pinellas County, Florida, and during that time, she has become very involved in the Random Acts of Flowers mission both at work and during her free time.

This is her story of the impact delivering hope has had in her life.


I work with the elderly and a lot of our patients are people who come to us from long-term care or assisted living facilities. They are often people who are dealing with dementia for the first time and don’t have family around. That’s an issue we deal with a lot here in Florida. People come down here to retire and then they are alone. 

The flowers that Random Acts of Flowers delivers create an emotional connection, and people – when they’re in the hospital – are overwhelmed. Their families are overwhelmed. It’s such a surreal experience and when flowers are there, you feel like a normal person. We expect to see flowers and trees and grass, and we take them for granted. But, when you’re in a facility, you don’t have the opportunity to go outside and enjoy nature in the same way.

The flowers create that feeling that someone cares about them, and it’s a great way to start a conversation about something other than the care they’re receiving. Everything’s being done to them, this is done for them. As a healthcare provider and a speech pathologist, it opens a lot of doors.

One of my favorite stories about the impact of Random Acts of Flowers is about a patient who had come from a skilled nursing facility. She wasn’t talking to us or interacting; she was shutting down. An RAF delivery came, and the flowers were on her windowsill. I brought the flowers over to her and started talking about them and had her smell them. And, she immediately started talking with me. She said, “I remember getting flowers for my birthday.” This bouquet had roses and was very fragrant and she said, “Roses are my favorite flower.”

That olfactory experience started triggering a lot of memories for her. There’s a lot of research about how the sense of smell can trigger memories and emotions. And, this woman who hadn’t spoken in a long time started speaking about her husband and her kids. From that point, she got more interactive, would eat more, etc. We encouraged her home facility to give her flowers to help her stay more alert and interactive.

Another story I love – We have a long-term care unit and we get our deliveries there every Tuesday. Recently, we had a young woman from Chicago in our care. She had a lot of memory issues, but one thing she could always remember was “on Tuesdays, my flowers come.” We would work on her knowing the date, trying to get her oriented. She was very confused, but we could give her that touchstone – “On Tuesdays, my flowers come.” She’s well on her way to a full recovery and going back home soon. She wants to volunteer at RAF Chicago when she’s feeling better. That’s what I call a full circle!


And, because RAF made deliveries to BayCare, I was able to see the positive effect it had on patients. It encouraged me to become more involved. My family and I have done deliveries, my son’s Boy Scout troop volunteered at the workshop, and my mom has even volunteered with floral prep. The benefit I’ve seen at my workplace made me want to help deliver hope to others. I love RAF, and I love what it does for patients, caregivers, and volunteers.


One more story! My sons are 15 and 17, and we did a delivery a few years ago at an Assisted Living Facility. There was a man there who had dementia, and we were told not to give him any flowers because he would eat them. My sons were upset because it was the man’s birthday the next day, but we couldn’t leave any flowers for him. So, with the facility’s permission, they decided that they wanted to bring him something for his birthday. So, we went back after school the next day with food and punch and spent some time with him for his birthday. Teenage boys are not necessarily known for being that compassionate, but making the connection with this man over the flowers helped their empathy shine through. They were able to think about delivering hope and bringing care and compassion to someone.

I would tell people interested in RAF, “Get involved immediately!” It’s so simple, but it’s so powerful. When you, as a volunteer, do something with your hands – prepping the flowers, making an arrangement, delivering flowers – it gets into your soul. One thing that’s especially great is that the feedback is immediate, and you can see it and feel it in the moment. When you talk about the ripple effect, the caregiver and the volunteer gets to enjoy the glow that the deliveries create.

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Newsroom

Random Acts of Flowers, ProFlowers and Sun Valley Floral Farms Partner to Donate Flowers to Veterans

Random Acts of Flowers, ProFlowers and Sun Valley Floral Farms Partner to Donate Flowers to Veterans

ProFlowers charity partners
will deliver 90,000 bright, beautiful Royal Lilies
in honor of Memorial Day.

SAN DIEGO, May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — To honor the brave men and women who have served our country, leading online floral gifting brand ProFlowers® (NASDAQ: FTD) and Sun Valley Floral Farms will donate and deliver 90,000 Royal Lilies to charities, veteran’s hospitals and centers around the nation. Random Acts of Flowers, ProFlowers charity partner whose ongoing mission is to create moments of kindness in healthcare facilities, will deliver the beautiful, bright bouquets throughout the third and fourth weeks of May in honor of Military Appreciation Month and Memorial Day.

Lilies represent appreciation, and Sun Valley’s Royal Spring lilies are an exclusive hybrid species of Asiatic-Longiflorum Lilies. Their blooms are bigger than traditional Asiatic Lilies, they have the longest vase life of any lily, and they boast the widest variety of colors including wonderful hues of peach, pink, orange and yellow. ProFlowers, Sun Valley and Random Acts of Flowers wanted to honor hospitalized and disabled military members who have served our country with the fresh flowers.

ProFlowers trucks are transporting the lilies to charity partners in Chicago, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Silicon Valley, Sacramento and Portland. Random Acts of Flowers and ProFlowers employee volunteers will deliver the bouquets to veterans in locations including Hines VA Hospital, Evanston Vet Center, Richard Roudebush Medical Center, the Palo Alto VA and others.

Since 1998, ProFlowers works directly with top-quality growers such as Sun Valley to deliver fresh flowers at a great value right to your recipient’s doorstep. Sun Valley is one of the largest grower/distributors of specialty cut flowers in the United States with farms in Northern and Southern California.

Random Acts of Flowers is ProFlowers main charity partner. To date, ProFlowers has donated more than 38,000 bouquets — 460,000 flowers — to the organization for its ongoing mission.

“At ProFlowers, our mission is to inspire, support and delight people through the gifting of fresh, beautiful flowers, while also doing our part to support the communitiesin which we live and operate,” said ProFlowers General Manager and Senior Vice President Laura Szeliga. “Honoring the lives, courage and legacy of our military is a part of that, and we know how much a simple gesture such as a vase of bright flowers can make a really meaningful impact. It goes a long way.”

“It is through ProFlowers and all of our partners’ continued support that brings our mission of delivering hope alive, day in and day out,” said Random Acts of Flowers National Programs and Strategic Growth Director Kellie Doyle. “We are also especially grateful to Sun Valley for these beautiful lilies. It will bring so many smiles to veterans across the country.”

Sun Valley Floral Farms President Lane DeVries said, “It is an honor to participate in this program and share our flowers with veterans across the United States. The men and women who selflessly serve in our nation’s military deserve our admiration. We are humbled by their service and see this small gesture as a way to say thank you.”

ProFlowers offers deep discounts to men and women in uniform at www.proflowers.com/militarydiscount. Visit ProFlowers.com for super-premium quality flowers for any kind of occasion including birthdays, anniversaries and “just because.”

About FTD Companies, Inc.
FTD Companies, Inc. is a premier floral and gifting company. Through our diversified family of brands, we provide floral, specialty foods, gifts and related products to consumers primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. We also provide floral products and services to retail florists and other retail locations throughout these same geographies. FTD has been delivering flowers since 1910 and the highly-recognized FTD® and Interflora® brands are supported by the iconic Mercury Man logo®, which is displayed in nearly 35,000 floral shops in over 125 countries. In addition to FTD and Interflora, our diversified portfolio of brands includes the following trademarks: ProFlowers®, ProPlants®, Shari’s Berries®, Personal Creations®, RedEnvelope®, Flying Flowers®, Flowers Direct™, Ink Cards™, Postagram™ and Gifts.com™. FTD Companies, Inc. is headquartered in Downers Grove, Ill. For more information, please visit www.ftdcompanies.com.

SOURCE FTD Companies, Inc.

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Spring 2017 Newsletter

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Spring 2017 Newsletter

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Blog Knoxville Patron Society

“Sometimes, people need a friend to talk to more than anything else”: RAF Founder Larsen Jay and the UT Trauma Survivors Network

Photo by Nadine Priestley Photography.

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“Sometimes, people need a friend to talk to more than anything else.” 

Larsen Jay, Random Acts of Flowers founder and trauma survivor, knows the value of a listening ear and shoulder to lean on more than most, and this has motivated him to be one of the founders and an active member of the University of Tennessee’s Trauma Survivors Network (TSN).

Photo by Nadine Priestley Photography.

The TSN was created at the University of Tennessee in January 2016 out of the American Trauma Society under the umbrella of the Trauma Advisory Council. The purpose of the Advisory Council is to bring together patients, family members, doctors, and administrators to encourage the hospital to think more from the patients’ and caregivers’ perspectives, as well as also to form the peer-to-peer TSN  program for patients who have sustained life-altering events, like a car accident or a fall from a height, connecting them with people who have shared a similar experience.

 

Therese Zaltash, coordinator for the TSN, breaks down why the program is so important to patients and caregivers

Therese Zaltash

“The medical aspect of their care is so precise and is down to minutia in regards to specific treatments and methodology, but what we’ve learned over time is that the patient sustains such anxiety and stress from the unknown. What does this injury mean? They might not have ever been in the hospital before. They may be separated from their family due to distance or insurance reasons. And, our support program has people come in for these patients.

We try to provide information to decrease anxiety. We believe information and education is power throughout the journey. We get in as quickly as we can, try to meet them as soon after admission as possible, when they’re in the critical care unit. We tell them about the resources that are available to them, so they can know what they have access to.

Trauma has multiple disciplines looking over your care – orthopedics, neurology, geriatric, pharmacology, etc. – and it can be overwhelming. Oftentimes, these people’s lives are going to be forever changed. We do a great job of putting them back together physically, but the emotional component is a challenge and it’s going to be a long road to follow. The meat and potatoes of our organization are the peer mentors, which is where Larsen comes in.”

What we get to do is go in and say ‘You have survived, you are here, and now what can we do to help you understand what the next steps will look like.’

Larsen Jay soon after his 2007 accident.

As a former trauma patient himself, Larsen knows how difficult the process can be. “The thing I always remember is that their whole world is upside down and they have no idea what the new normal is going to be like. They might be worrying about the logistical things about their life, ‘Did I feed my pet?’ But it’s also, ‘How am I going to put my life back together?’ It’s totally disorienting and exhausting from minute one on. And, so what we get to do is go in and say ‘You have survived, you are here, and now what can we do to help you understand what the next steps will look like.’” One thing that Larsen does to show patients that he understands is to bring in pictures from his own accident which he says “breaks down the barriers to help them see that there’s life after trauma.

Larsen describes the peer-to-peer network as “we’re a third therapist, a third friend, and a third ‘take a breath, it’s going to be okay,’ perspective. It gives the current patient an outlet to someone who isn’t a doctor, nurse, or administrator, but someone who’s been where they’ve been. A real community connector. About 40% of the people who come through the trauma center aren’t from Knoxville. They’re from all over the region, and could be 6-8 hours from home. So, we’re patient advocates but also ambassadors for our Knoxville community.”

Besides being a good listener, added support, and community ambassadors, the TSN peers can also help patients with the logistics of being in the trauma center – how to ask questions, smooth the process, and advocate for yourself. That you have the right as a patient to stay in control of your treatment. Therese recalls how valuable RAF Co-founder (and Larsen’s wife) Adrian’s presence was during his time in the trauma center. “When he came, he was blessed in that he and his wife Adrian work so well together. She was at his bedside from the very beginning and took notes on every single thing that transpired – medications, staff changes, questions to ask. Oftentimes, patients don’t feel that they have a voice to ask those questions, but they did. They asked those questions.” Adrian now serves as a peer mentor for caregivers in the TSN.

In the end, Larsen says “The thing that motivates me the most is the fact that I’m alive and I can help the next person. I didn’t have that when I went through, so I recognize the value of it. It’s our duty to help the person who is going through what we went through, because we wish we had it.”

On Thursday, May 18th, Larsen will speak on the role of the peer visitor at the First Annual Trauma Survivor Network Survivor Celebration. This event will recognize the success and healing process of all the UT Trauma Center’s 2016 patients, as well as recognize the medical staff and volunteers who worked with them.

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