Editor’s Note: This story is part of our series “Helping Hands”, which aims to spotlight Johnson Countians doing good in the background of their community. If you have an idea for someone to spotlight in a future “Helping Hands” story, email us at [email protected].
At the end of a wedding, late at night when the dance floor empties and the lights come up, the flowers are often still perfectly intact. And headed for the trash.
To Andrea Taylor, that seemed like a shame.
“We just kind of saw the flowers going to waste,” she said. “The florists come back at the end of the night to pick up their vases and their candles and whatever else the bride rented from them, and they usually throw all the flowers away.”
So she and her daughter, Claire Taylor, decided to do something about it. If those bouquets didn’t serve a purpose at the weddings they’d been created for anymore, they figured, why not bring a little to color to others who might need it?
This year, the mother-and-daughter duo from De Soto launched Your Flower Friends — a Lenexa-based nonprofit that takes leftover bouquets from weddings and events and repurposes them for nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other care communities in the Kansas City metro area.
Your Flower Friends launched this year
Your Flower Friends officially gained its 501(c)(3) status in March, but Andrea began laying the groundwork earlier this year, attending her first bridal fair in January to gauge interest from venues and florists.
She also researched similar efforts in other cities, reading up on active flower-repurposing groups in other states like North Dakota and Tennessee. She figured it was time for the Kansas City area to have its own version.
Brides or event planners contact them through their website, or sometimes Andrea coordinates directly with florists and venues.
Together, Andrea and Claire make late-night stops to wedding venues across the Kansas City metro area, loading flowers into cars or sometimes a rented van. It’s work that has to happen quickly; sometimes within only an hour to clear everything out.
“We’ve gotten really fast,” Andrea said. “We just grab and go, and we sort it later on our own time.”
Some facilities use flowers as therapy
The sorting happens out of their home in De Soto. The flowers go into a large floral cooler that Andrea purchased herself, or into buckets of water.
From there, they either create flower arrangements ready to be donated and placed in vases at their new homes, or the flowers themselves go on to serve a different purpose: a sort of flower therapy.
Some facilities, particular those with memory care, prefer to use the flowers as an activity. Residents at the facilities can create arrangements of their own, and sometimes, they create still-life paintings out of the finished product.
“It’s multi-sensory,” Andrea said, pointing to research about how flowers can help boost mood and memory in older adults. “It’s the touch, the feel, the smell. And it can trigger memories.”
It’s an impact that Andrea and Claire have gotten to see from residents, staff and volunteers — on their faces and in handwritten thank-you notes.
“Their eyes kind of light up,” Claire said. “It’s really fun to just kind of see them work and make these really pretty (arrangements). They’re so appreciative, it’s just amazing to see.”
Your Flower Friends has growth on the horizon
Though Your Flower Friends started out strictly as a mother-daughter operation, they’ve since made volunteers out of friends and neighbors, and have even partnered with some local businesses to host free flower arranging events.
Many of those volunteers and businesses have already asked when they can do it again. It’s an effect that Andrea said took her by surprise: the flowers aren’t just breathing life into those receiving them, but those helping to put them together.
“People are happy helping,” Andrea said. “I totally wasn’t expecting the impact that we have on people who just feel like they’re just playing with flowers.”
Your Flower Friends is also tapping into service-hour requirements for area students. Claire’s high school, St. James Academy requires students to log service hours, and they’re working to get Your Flower Girls on the lists of approved volunteer opportunities there.
Longer term, they want to expand more consistently beyond Johnson County, into communities like Lawrence, Leavenworth and additional parts of Kansas City, Kansas. That would mean more than just nursing homes — potentially hospices, group homes, Meals on Wheels recipients and disability programs.
“We would love to reach as many people as we possibly can,” Andrea said.
As the project continues to grow though, the mission at the center remains simple.
“We just want to be there to make other people’s lives prettier,” Claire said.
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