Archives for June 2014

Flower Angels are illuminating Cape Cod…one bouquet and one smile at a time!

Know what sparks the light in you . Then use that light to illuminate the world. ~ Oprah

Flower Angels USA has been blessed with having wonderful young men and woman from Community Connections, our local day program, volunteer to pick up the flowers donated from Trader Joes. They arrived in a wheel chair van filled to the brim with flowers and smiles from ear to ear. We all are delighted to have our new Flower Angel collectors helping to fulfill our mission. We send you a GIANT HUG and a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has been helping including the drivers. We welcome and thank Kevin, our vase engineer, for the awesome job he did washing and putting away 137 vases on his very first day of work! He never stopped working or smiling. What a joy to have this wonderful man on our Flower Angel team. Flower Angel, Mara, made 12 beautiful bouquets this week and delivered. She loves deconstructing and arranging flowers and is an inspiration to all of us. We love you, Mara! One of our goals for Flower Angels USA is to provide paid positions in a loving, supportive environment for our special young adults. Everything we had imagined is coming to fruition so quickly which is exciting to witness. We expect there are many more unknown blessings on their way to us.

Because more volunteers are finding us and loving our mission, we were able to cheerfully deliver to six facilities this week including Eagle Pond, Mayflower, Pleasant Bay, EPOCH Brewster, Thirwood Place and Mashpee Center nursing home facilities—200+ smiles! Divia, one of our newest Flower Angels jumped in and instantly was a tremendous help in our workshop. She loves delivering to the patients and we are grateful to have her shining face in our midst.

We received several lovely notes including:

“Hello to the Flower Angels. You brought so much joy to all of us in EPOCH of Harwich. Flowers will do that! Thank you to Trader Joes also for donating these beautiful flowers. I wish I still had my house in West Dennis. I would donate all of the beautiful flowers we grew to you. God Bless” Eileen S.

“We love the Flower Angels. They make us happy.” Cindy M.

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The Dali Lama once told us that our purpose in life is to be happy. But, the only way we can be truly happy is to serve others.

I thought about this many times through out the years. Many people feel an emptiness in their hearts but have no idea how to change that. We invite them to experience time in our workshop with our wonderful Flower Angels volunteers and deliver flowers to those in nursing homes who have never had a visitor. Their hearts will be full very quickly!

Sadly, the patients in nursing homes are there because life offered no other options. When the Flower Angels arrive with cart loads of amazing, brilliantly colored flowers, many are so happy and can’t believe they were delivered to the right room. We read the flower card…”This bouquet was made especially for you.” They are so surprised and grateful. They love to know the recycled and repurposed flowers were generously donated from the beautiful weddings at Wychmere Beach Club, Chatham Bars Inn, Wequassett Inn, Ocean Edge Resort and that Trader Joes has been a wonderful floral partner to Flower Angels USA’s mission. Some staff, patients and our new volunteers are so touched their eyes fill with tears. Everyone who delivers bouquets cannot help but be touched deeply. Although we keep our cheery smiles, hearts break each time we think society has all but forgotten our elderly people who have so many stories and so much to teach us. And then we are reminded of how Flower Angels USA must be in the flow of Divine Grace because it was instantly successfully just delivering random acts of love to many. Only weeks ago we were buying flowers and vases…and now we have an abundance of many things we need donated. Wonderful volunteers are finding us…and loving the mission. Our hearts are smiling every day. It’s challenging using so many cars to pick up and deliver flowers and lugging many heavy boxes of flowers is difficult but we know we are involved in an important mission. We keep the faith that a blessing of a van is on it’s way!

In the past week, we have delivered smiles galore to Beacon Hospice, The Pavillion, Eagle Pond, Mayflower Place and Thirwood Place.

Flower Angels USA on a mission….delivering joy to others! Our hearts are smiling.

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Thanks to an awesome team of volunteers on a mission and generous brides, venues and Trader Joes, Flower Angels USA is growing with leaps and bounds.

We would like to extend a HUGE thank you to our three newlywed couples who donated all of their spectacular flower and centerpieces. When I first walked in and saw so many magnificent flowers, it took my breath away. And then we got to work carrying them to the SUV. It took three trips back and forth to our workshop to get them all there. This was a blessing because recently we were told that many nursing home budgets for flower arranging had been eliminated a year or so ago. Alzheimer’s patients love arranging flowers and it is very therapeutic for them. We took several of this centerpieces and a box of smaller vases to one of the nursing homes. Everyone was delighted. Our next mission will be to seek plastic vases as this is what is needed for the Alzheimer’s units.

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This last week, Flower Angels had two incredibly busy days arranging and delivering flowers to Spaulding Rehab, Windsor Nursing Home and Pleasant Bay Nursing home. We were up to our ears in flowers that were generously donated by Trader Joes. We want to thank three newly married couples who donated their wedding flowers to us. Most of us focus on ourselves at a wedding event, but these folks choose to give their flowers to our nursing home residents. Many thanks and congratulations on your marriage!!!!

Our volunteers are developing their own personal style. Ro has a love and a flair for creating beautiful arrangements in our colored vases. She collected them off of our shelves, stored them behind her and was creating and creating at a terrific rate.

Kathleen has broken out of traditional arrangements and has moved on to gorgeous big bouquets. One looked like an alien being, with antennas . A novel approach to using tall irises.

Suzanne worked tirelessly rearranging our shelves of over 2000 vases, while Karen wrapped and loaded the arrangements for delivery.

Bonnie worked at a peaceful pace and her flowers reflected beauty and harmony, while our newest angel, Betsy fit right in and declared that she was going to bring her mother soon.

Karen D., who is helping in our office (bless her heart) said afterward that she “had a blast”.

Mara, Suzanne’s daughter found that she can create with the rest of us and we are all so proud of her!!!!!

Flower Angels is lifting off and delivering to so many residents of nursing homes and hospice centers. We are delivering smiles and uplifting spirits and love what we are doing. Thank you to everyone involved!

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