Recently Yvette along with Bloom Graduates ran a charity flower arranging event by Floral acts of kindness. Bloom College graduate Isabelle De Solier came up with the idea for Floral Acts of Kindness last year when her synagogue (TBI) was holding its annual “Mitzvah (Good Deed) Day”, Isabelle said “I wanted to run a volunteer activity that would share the uplifting power of flowers with others. I thought there might be the opportunity to run an initiative with flowers, to rescue those that might otherwise be thrown out and use them instead to bring a smile to someone’s face”.

“I did some research and modelled the event on the charity Random Acts of Flowers in the USA, who were kind enough to share their advice with me”. My wholesaler Mr Fresh generously donated a trolley of open flowers for the event, which TBI volunteers arranged with guidance from myself and two of my Bloom classmates Lindy Dorne and Helen Patrikios, before volunteers hand-delivered the bouquets to residents at Montefiore nursing home”.
For this year’s Mitzvah Day on November 19th we were lucky to have another wholesaler partner with us, Van Gogh Flowers, and the volunteers at TBI watched a demonstration by Yvette before making their arrangements with the assistance of four other Bloom graduates, Lindy Dorne, Lou McLaughlin, Liz Wise and Lyn Scott. In total, our 20 volunteers made over 120 bouquets, which were hand-delivered to residents at Central Park nursing home.

Following the success of these annual events, Yvette and I are keen to hold more regular events in 2018, partnering with further florists, wholesalers, community organisations with volunteers who’d like to arrange flowers, and health organisations with people who’d like to receive flowers. If you’re interested in donating your time or flowers, please email us at: floralactsofkindness@gmail.com. Good feelings guaranteed.
Dr Isabelle de Solier (The Doctor’s Flowers)

With special thanks to Reuben Urban for the photographs