‘Bouquet-a-thon’ Spreads Smiles Across Rhode Island
What Cheer Flower Farm volunteers will craft 600 bouquets from unsold Valentine’s Day flowers and deliver them to local hospitals and care centers Wednesday.
The day after Valentine’s Day is usually pretty unexceptional. You may dig into some leftover candies or scour CVS for deals on discounted chocolates, but that’s usually about it.
Not so at What Cheer Flower Farm. On Wednesday, Feb. 15, farm staff and volunteers will sort through donated Valentine’s Day blooms, transform them into gorgeous bouquets and deliver them to local hospitals, nursing homes and care centers.
About 600 bouquets will be given away, says Erin Achenbach, the farm’s farmer-florist. In total, ten local florists and retail stores will donate flowers, and thirty volunteers will create bouquets Wednesday morning and deliver them via the farm’s CheerMobile to six sites throughout Rhode Island, including the Providence VA Medical Center, AIDS Care Ocean State, Newport Hospital and the R.I. Veterans Home Community Living Center.
Bouquets ready for delivery. Courtesy of What Cheer Flower Farm.
The nonprofit urban farm, nestled onto three acres just steps away from Providence’s Olneyville Square, grows, rescues and donates flowers to local hospices, food banks, shelters and senior centers. This is its third Valentine’s Day Bouquet-a-thon; the last one was held in 2020.
There’s still time to give to the cause: Each $10 donation equals a donated bouquet, and donors receive a Valentine’s Day card to color in and give to a friend or loved one. Visit whatcheerfarm.org for more information or to donate.
What Cheer Flower Farm gives out 100,000 flowers a year and has ambitious plans for growth in the future, including remediating the rest of the site, a brownfield that once housed the Colonial Knife Company, and creating a floral academy to train workers in the art of floristry. Staffers also want to launch a community cut-flower garden where folks can grow their own blooms.
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