Laura Kantakis, co-owner of Associated Wholesale Florist in Rochelle Park, N.J., died March 25, 2008. Active in both SAF and Wholesale Florist and Florist Suppliers Association (WF&FSA), she was known for doing what it takes to get the job done, including getting flowers into New York City after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Kantakis was born on Aug. 29, 1952, in Astoria, N.Y., and graduated from Concordia College in Bronxville, N.Y. She served on both the Member Services Committee and the Wholesalers Council for SAF and was a former board member at WF&FSA.

When the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001 occurred Kantakis, on behalf of the family's wholesale operation, organized the wholesale house to receive and process flower donations sent from all over the country, and the business delivered them into the city and ultimately distributed them to firefighters, police, grief centers, hospitals, etc.

Kantakis had a "can-do" attitude that she always pulled off with a smile, recalls Carol Caggiano, AIFD, PFCI, of A. Caggiano, Inc., in Jeffersonton, Va., who worked alongside Kantakis after 9/11.

"She was a very special person and very dedicated to the floral industry," says Caggiano, who at the time co-owned and operated with her husband, Neil, a Long Island-based florist, Glen Head Flower Shop, which she sold in 2004.

"After 9/11 we had many challenges facing us as an industry trying to find a place where we could help and do our part. Things were not easy then and moving around New York City was very difficult," Caggiano says, adding that Laura found ways to get bouquets to family members visiting Ground Zero and in volunteer rest and eating areas. "These tasks sounds simple, but it was anything but that," Caggiano says. "Security was so very tight and you only had access between certain hours. Laura always made it work."

A funeral mass was held at St. Anthony's R.C. Church in Hawthorne, N.J., followed by an entombment at George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus, N.J., on March 29.

--Kori Kamradt
kkamradt@safnow.org

 


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