After staring at the floral arrangements at New York’s Waldorf Astoria every day during her lunch breaks to give herself an emotional boost, an aspiring actress/clerical worker came up with a plan to bring that same happiness from flowers to others in need.

Nancy Lawlor picked up the hotel’s house phone and called around to find out what the hotel does with the “old” (but not dead) flowers when they bring in new arrangements. That call led to her to “repurposing” the flowers and giving them to patients in local medical facilities.

That was five years ago, and now that one little idea to spread happiness has turned into Lawlor’s foundation, “Flower Power,” and more than $2.5 million-worth of flower donations, NBC’s Nightly news recently reported.

After large weddings and other events, event organizers can donate 10 percent of the floral budget to the foundation, along with the flowers, and Lawlor’s volunteers come pick them up, and redistribute them to veteran’s hospitals, nursing homes, and other care facilities.

Lawlor says she would love to be able to accept everything; however, the floral budget for an event has to be a minimum of $5,000 (a $500 donation) for her volunteers to come repurpose the flowers.

“If it’s a $10,000 floral budget, not your linens, your party equipment, just your flowers, I know what that looks like,” Lawlor says. “I’ll know how many people I’ll need. Ultimately our goal is to have crews for the evenings that are paid. Right now they’re not.”

Those that donate get a tax break. “It really works out well for everyone,” she adds.

Currently most of Flower Power’s operations have been out of New York and Los Angeles, because it’s based on a volunteer effort, mainly Lawlor’s groups of friends. However, she’s looking to expand the foundation nationally.

SAF recently donated the floral designs created during the SAF Congressional Reception to Meals on Wheels. Three years ago, AIFD launched a program to donate all the flowers after its Symposium to local hospitals.

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

 

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