OUR FIRST VOLUNTEER

Here we are at the Biltmore early on a beautiful Sunday morning, picking up flowers from last night’s wedding on the Library Terrace.  The flowers filled up an entire van - gorgeous arrangements from the Flower Gallery in downtown Asheville.  This is a great photo of Nancy, our first volunteer, who is always smiling and laughing, even when she’s not playing with flowers.  It made our morning go quickly.  We took these flowers over to Highland Farms Retirement Community, where some of the residents had a great time making arrangements.

FLOWER GALLERY

The arrangements at the Flower Gallery are stunning!  But stunning or not, we take them apart and put the flowers in buckets to be taken to nursing homes.  Luck McElreath, the owner, has been very generous to us, even providing the great location for our initial photo shoot.  The Flower Gallery is located at 46 Haywood Street, Suite 6, in downtown Asheville.  Check them out at www.flowergalleryasheville.com.

MEDIA

After a wedding, holiday party, fundraising gala or other event featuring fresh flowers, someone collects the posies that are left behind and redistributes them to nursing homes, hospices and other long-term care facilities.

Nancy Pope and Lisa Baker thought of it, and they started doing it last September when they launched Second Bloom, a nonprofit that uses volunteers to collect donated flowers from local venues and businesses, deliver them to care facilities and create beautiful new bouquets for the residents.

“When I tell people about it, it’s like, ‘Oh, what a great idea,’ and how wonderful of these businesses to make this happen,” said Judy Garry, a volunteer with Second Bloom and owner of Your Vase or Mine, a flower-picking business she operates in her gardens in East Asheville during the growing season.

“For me, this is the most exciting thing, because I am a flower nutcase — I’m an addict,” Garry said. “And of course from November until late March, I’m not able to feed my habit, so this is like being a kid in a candy shop. It’s such a great thing that these beautiful flowers don’t go into the landfill.

“I get to feed my habit, and a lot of people get a lot of joy from these blooms.”

Pope said Second Bloom couldn’t spread all that floral joy without the help of local businesses and venues that help get the flowers to the volunteer group (see below). The businesses either donate directly or suggest to brides and event planners that they consider donating their post-party posies.

Volunteers then collect the flowers, transport them to nursing homes and other facilities and sit down with residents to create the bouquets that are distributed to residents.

Pope said she and Baker are working without payment for now but hope that the nonprofit can gain enough support eventually to reimburse them for their expenses and time.

“Right now we are all out-of-pocket. We wanted to start up and be able to demonstrate the value of this service and then look for funding,” she said. “We also will be looking for funding for some special projects, such as (creating) raised garden beds in the courtyards of a few facilities,” she said.

Pope, Baker and the volunteers service six facilities, making more than 400 bouquets once a week for residents at The Laurels of Greentree Ridge, Courtyard Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (formerly Magnolia Health Care), CarePartners Solace Center, The McCune Center, Highland Farms and Shadybrook Assisted Living. The hope is that with more flower donations and volunteers, the service can expand throughout Western North Carolina, Pope said.

Betsey Baker, a floral designer with the Biltmore Estate, said Second Bloom is a perfect example of “recycling, repurposing, reusing things.”

“Flowers raise people’s spirits,” Baker said. “They just brighten their lives. And this also gives folks at these nursing homes the opportunity to work with the flowers, to make arrangements and give them to other folks there.”

“I know Lisa and Nancy want to eventually work with plants, to let the residents watch them grow and eventually flower, giving them that future to look forward to,” Baker said. “I just love the whole concept.”

Teri Shelton, activity director at Courtyard Rehabilitation on Victoria Road, said the Second Bloom team “has been such a blessing to a lot of folks in our facility.”

“They come in with such a wonderful attitude, and always involve the residents, and they always make sure everybody gets something,” Shelton said. “They make a tremendous difference in everybody’s day, putting a smile on everyone’s face. I just can’t say anything good enough about them.”

GET INVOLVED

Express thanks to the businesses that donate the blooms, among them the Biltmore Estate, Black Mountain Floral Center, Blossoms at Biltmore Park, the Flower Gallery, the Bloom Room, Earth Fare, Fresh Market, Homewood, Coleman Place, the Crest Center and others.

Volunteer. To learn more about Second Bloom, visit www.secondbloom.org, e-mail Nancy Pope at nancy@secondbloom.org or call 702-0515.

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TV VIDEO CLIP A SURPRISE FOR SECOND BLOOM! December 9th, 2008 ABC News Channel 13 followed us around as we collected flowers from Fresh Market and took them to The McCune Center in Black Mountain. Watch us on TV. Check out the video.

Second Bloom On The News!

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PRESS RELEASE

December 3, 2008
New Asheville Non-Profit Organization Makes People in WNC Smile With Recycled Flowers

(openPR) - In the summer of 2008 co-founders Nancy Pope and Lisa Baker came together to launch a non-profit organization in the Asheville, NC area called Second Bloom. Second Bloom collects cut flowers from grocery stores, weddings, parties, holiday events and other occasions in order to create beautiful, simple flower bouquets for hospice, nursing home, and long term care residents to keep in their rooms. Since the summer months Second Bloom has developed an interactive web site, secondbloom.org, and started its first volunteer program in Western North Carolina.

Second Bloom is in search of volunteers near Asheville that can assist with the Flower Exchange Train and help collect donations, deliver flowers and create floral arrangements. Trustworthy volunteers over the age of 18, with a valid driver’s license, are needed for floral delivery and pick up. Volunteers interested in spending time with residents and making small floral bouquets and flower arrangements are also invited to join the team.

In addition, Second Bloom seeks charitable donations and corporate sponsors to provide financial funding in support of their activities and to fund various projects. In 2008 various Asheville area florists, grocery stores and event centers rushed to provide support and flowers for Second Bloom. Biltmore Estate (Lioncrest, Stable Café, The Inn at Biltmore, The Floral Displays Department), Black Mountain Floral Center, Blossoms at Biltmore Park, Flower Gallery, The Bloom Room, Earth Fare, Fresh Market, Homewood, Coleman Place and The Crest Center have all donated flowers to make floral bouquets. Second Bloom continues to expand their flower donations. Recipients of the flowers include Magnolia Health Care Center, Care Partners Hospice, The Laurels of GreenTree Ridge, The McCune Center, Highlands Farm Retirement Community and Shadybrook Assisted Living.

Baker and Pope were inspired to start Second Bloom for personal reasons. Baker’s love of flowers and plants began as a child when taking flowers to her grandmother at the nursing home became a regular outing with her mother. Pope became involved after nurturing a close friendship with Clara Kaminski, a resident of Pisgah Manor. “We couldn’t resist the idea,” says Baker. “It has become an amazingly heartwarming enterprise to be involved with day after day,” adds Pope. Information about volunteers and charitable donations can be found online at www.SecondBloom.org or call (828) 702-0515 or 702-0516.

Asheville’s newest nonprofit organization recycles flowers from grocery stores, florists and events in order to make and deliver floral bouquets at nursing homes, retirement communities and long term care facilities. Second Bloom is the inspiration of founders Nancy Pope and Lisa Baker and currently looking for charitable donations as well as local volunteers throughout Western North Carolina.

Second Bloom
250 Winding Ridge Road
Black Mountain, NC 28711
Nancy Pope
nancy@secondbloom.org
(828) 702-0515
www.secondbloom.org

Press release from: Second Bloom
PR Agency: Sidhe Communications, LLC

SPECIAL PROJECTS

 

2010 SECOND BLOOM RAFFLE:

TASTE THE LOCAL HARVEST

Donated by
Cane Creek Asparagus & Company
www.CaneCreekCSA.com

ONE CSA Vegetable Basket (enough food for a family of 4) during EACH of
four months: May, June, July and August 2010
Raffle tickets: $5 for 1 or 3 for $10

Call 242-0254 for tickets, or send a check made out to:
Asheville Greenworks, as Second Bloom is one of their 501(c)(3) projects.

524 Sweetsprire Ridge
Asheville, North Carolina 28804

and we will send you your tickets and tax deductible receipt.

Raffle Drawing May 7th, 12:00PM

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PROJECT NUMBER 2:  A CARGO VAN FOR SECOND BLOOM

Second Bloom began long after we’d bought our cars.  The joke was:  ‘How many flowers can you get in a Prius?’  As it turned out, not all that many.  So we moved to my truck, which was great.  Especially since it hadn’t rained or been very hot on the days we’d been hauling flowers.  We count ourselves meterologically blessed.

But now, after three months in business it’s become quite apparent that we are in need of a couple of vans.  Especially by the time wedding season rolls around this spring.  We could get rain, most likely will find warmer weather and definitely, without a doubt will be getting a LOTTA FLOWERS!  Blooms galore, buckets unending, blossoms flying everywhere - you get the idea. Being a small, non-profit business in start up phase, buying one outright is not what we’re looking for.  So we are seeing this Chevy Express, Ford Cargo Van or some other just like it in our future.  Hope you see the same thing for us.  And if you can help us acquire one, please don’t keep it to yourself  - send word via phone, email, snail mail, telepathy or carrier pigeon!