A FRESH BREEZE FROM THE NORTH

Gail was the fresh breeze from the north, having blown in (flown in?) from Massachusetts.  The highlight of her trip (my trip?) was blooming with Second Bloom at The Solace Center.  She claimed no talent at all, but in fact not only could fill cups with water and cut the paper off the flowers from The Fresh Market…..she could also cut and stuff with the best of them.

We were fortunate to have some assistance with our flowers.  Check out who joined us.

THE BEST DOGGONE VOLUNTEERS!

Here’s a great photo of Jackie and Rich driving our newest volunteer Brewster who’s in the back seat looking very proud of the four buckets of flowers he just picked up from The Fresh Market.  A little hard to see the flowers, but they weren’t as important to document as his photo is.  When I talked to Louise at Fresh Market the next day, she told me she’d met Brewster, that he’d strolled in like he owned the place.

But we had two other volunteers with us today as well, Clare and Leslie.  Clare’s volunteered several times but this was Leslie’s first.  She found us through Hands On Asheville and knew Clare, who headed up the Sunday morning project for Second Bloom.  She claimed she had no talent, but she made some beautiful arrangements.  Check out the pretty vase of roses and greens, flowers that Brewster had collected.  And find out more about our Sunday morning.

HENDERSONVILLE HIGHLIGHT

Susie McIlvaine has become Second Bloom’s first volunteer to bring flowers from The Fresh Market to two different facilities in Hendersonville.  She’ll be delivering flowers on Thursdays to both Sunnybrook and Carillon Assisted Living Centers.  So from now on the flowers we pick up in Hendersonville will stay in Hendersonville.  The residents have a real treat in store for them.  Not only are the flowers bright and full of life, but so is Susie.  She’s got energy enough for all of us!  Happy to have her on board!

ROSY VOLUNTEERS

So here they are, at least a few of them.  Clare’s taking the picture, so you can’t see her happy face.

Clare, Ellen and Loretta led up the Second Bloom Volunteer Squad for the Rhododendron Brigade’s donation of 100 dozen roses from their ball the night before.  Wow!  Many people enjoyed these flowers for days to come.  Find out where they went on this bright Sunday morning.

HANDS ON HELP

There were 8 of us at Care Partners Rehab Hospital today.  Two volunteers brought flowers.  Susan, pictured on the left with Nancy, brought flowers from Fresh Market in Hendersonville.  Look closely at what she’s carrying in her hand - it’s a bloomin’ artichoke with an incredible purple flowering center!  We picked that up from a wedding the day before, flowers from The Bloom Room were spectacular.  We also arrived to find a bucket of flowers from the garden of Judy Garry, Your Vase or Mine, that was dropped off by a volunteer.

Four volunteers from Hands On Asheville and one volunteer who flew in all the way from Connecticut.  The photo above is of Larissa, Jo and Sharon.  Sharon was the project manager for the day from Hands On Asheville. To the right is a photo of Elizabeth working with the really cool weeping red flowering wierdness.  She was quite taken with it.  On the left is Cindy, visiting from Connecticut.  She’s been working hard this week, hauling buckets of flowers from the Biltmore, Fresh Market, wherever she was needed.

Find out how their morning went.

CITY MARKET

Here’s a great photo of Jackie selling raffle tickets at City Market to our friend Abby, who we haven’t seen in quite some time.  It was a beautiful Saturday and Second Bloom was there for the whole show.  Lots of people supporting our efforts and many hearing about us for the first time.  I finally met Sarah Catoe, the director of Hands On Asheville.  They are an organization that helps run volunteeer projects for businesses.  Perfect for Second Bloom.  It’s been quite a relief to have their help.  I also met several people that work at The Solace Center and also at the Laurels of GreenTree Ridge.

GOOGLE-ING THEIR WAY TO SECOND BLOOM

This was a first for me.  I asked how Teresa (on the left) and Brooke (on the right)found out about Second Bloom.  Turns out they googled Asheville + volunteers.  And up we sprouted.  I was very glad they chose to help out at Courtyard today because we had a mega amount of roses from The Fresh Market, both in Asheville and Hendersonville.  I found out that 12 buckets, big 5 gallon buckets, can actually fit in the cab of a truck.  Dodging raindrops all day we managed to get 6 of those buckets into Courtyard.

VIBRANT VOLUNTEERS

What a great group of volunteers today, braving the Seattle-like weather to brighten the day with flowers for over 60 patients and staff at Care Partners Rehab Hospital. It’s a simple generosity of spirit that was there cutting and arranging flowers into what turned out to be very colorful bouquets.  Tall and short alike (the vases, not the volunteers).   See more.

There was quite a lot of concentration going on, as you can see on the faces of Bonnie (top left), Shanna (top right) and Clare (on the left).  But there was always enough time for the surprise and delight that yellow roses can provide, as seen with the expression on Laura’s face.

And just look at the fabulous final result: a huge cart full of gorgeous flowers.  Everyone who walked by as we were handing out flowers commented on how beautiful they were.  And that’s all it took for them to receive their own arrangement…..

A TEAM OF VOLUNTEERS

See what Second Bloom was up to early Mother’s Day morning.  With a team of volunteers we brought wedding flowers from Morganton all the way back to 6 different facilities here in Black Mountain and Asheville.

At the front of the Flower Exchange Train we had Maggie, Pat and Jackie.  We collected the flowers from a stormy wedding on Saturday night and heard tales of hail, wind and wild rain - quite an energetic start to a marriage!

We loaded the flowers into the truck and the van and headed out, going in a few different directions.  On to another stage of our Flower Exchange Train.  I met up with Leslie, featured here with her dog Happy - or is it her happy dog?  And also with Clare, whose picture I forgot to take today but fortunately have another so you can see her smiling face.  They each carried off flowers to a facility and I took the remaining off to a third place.

All the flowers were distributed by early afternoon, in time for many Mother’s Day celebrations!

DOWNTOWN IN BLOOM

The Grove Arcade Flower Show was the highlight of the weekend, or at least the highlight of my weekend.

Second Bloom set up a table and talked nonstop to everyone who walked by.  Jackie, Joanne and Leslie volunteered to take some air time while I walked around and looked at all the other displays.

It was a great event for Second Bloom.  Excellent visibility and networking. I met many people who recognized Second Bloom from Care Partners, both the Solace Center and the Rehab Hospital.  Some who knew about us from Fresh Market and the Biltmore Estate.  Word is definitely spreading.

SECOND BLOOM’S WEB WONDER

Damaris Pierce volunteered today with Second Bloom.  It’s thanks to Damaris that we’ve got such a great website!  She did a wonderful, creative job for us.  She’s very talented.  Take a look at her website www.artoflife.com and see for yourself.

Today her talent was focused on arranging flowers - some in very small cups.  She turned out to be quite masterful at it and I’m hoping she returns soon to Second Bloom. In the photo on the left she’s just getting started, but see where she ended up!

WEDDING SEASON IS HERE

Two Sundays in a row we’ve had flowers from weddings at the Biltmore Estate.  Today the flowers, hundreds of tulips, came from Blossoms at Biltmore Park.  It took us a little bit to find the flowers at the Biltmore Inn, but we managed to load them all into the back of the truck.

We took them over to Care Partners Rehab Hospital and then dropped the rest of them off at Deerfield Retirement Community.  Clare and Jackie were the volunteers of the day. These flowers brought out an amazing amount of smiles on the faces of everyone who saw them.  The patients at the Rehab Center loved them and the staff got to take some home as well.  Who could resist this spring display, especially the day before they’re predicting snow for us!

MY HENDERSONVILLE HEROINES

My heroines.  Yes, it’s true, this dynamic duo carried flowers from The Fresh Market in the the far off land of Hendersonville all the way to Courtyard in Asheville!  It was a first!  Susan and Tina have been friends for 42 years (ever since they were born) or was it 32 years - not sure they figured it out.  Tina’s in green, Susan in blue.  See what we were up to with the residents of Courtyard.

They were totally delightful to spend the morning with, cutting flowers, making arrangements and handing out over 100 bouquets to all the residents.  Turns out we love some of the same places in Flat Rock and Hendersonville.  Fresh Market’s one of those place and the Flat Rock Village Bakery for anything they make is another.

VOLUNTEERS, FLOWERS, COOKIES

It was bake sale time at Courtyard.  Wonderful aroma while we arranged flowers.  A bake sale to help out Second Bloom!  How great is that?  We had two fabulous volunteers today.  Sally joined us and jumped right in to the activity.  I only got my camera out once so I don’t have a current photo of Sally, but here she is on the left.  To make up for that, I’ve made her photo a bit larger than the one of Susan….  Susan volunteered with Second Bloom for the first time.  Apparently when you volunteer for your first time, you actually get in the photos.  She really enjoyed herself and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of her in the coming weeks.  To see what was going on when they volunteered, check out Courtyard.

THE HOT HOUSE

It was like blooming in a hot house we were moving so fast!  Melinda on the right and Jackie on the left.  Jackie was a surprise volunteer with a couple of free hours on her hands while she waited for a real estate deal to close. You might think we wouldn’t have time to even exchange a few ideas, but we did a bit of brainstorming about fundraising for Second Bloom.

So what’s with the photo of the hands and the flowers, besides great photographic art?  Well, it’s Lizzee,  our mysterious third volunteer….what no photos of her?  Scroll down to some other entries if you want to see her or simply go to her Flowered Events website and check out her creative skills!  Quite remarkable!  Which is not to see the rest of us were slackers.  We all put out some beautiful arrangements and everyone loved them.  Just check out the happy results today.

WATER GIRL

We try to glorify the duties of our volunteers, but Jackie wants to tell you that someone needs to haul the buckets of water outside after the flowers have been used.  And someone needs to knock on every door with the arrangements.

The surprising part is meeting whoever is behind the door you happen to be knocking on. Like Barbara, who is always ready with a smile and a willingness to chat a bit.  Not to mention, she lets us take her picture - which definitely adds interest to our website.

To see who else we found behind closed doors at Highland Farms, click here.

THEN THERE WAS ONE….

Emily joined us today at Courtyard with flowers from The Fresh Market and from St. Eugene Catholic Church.  We arrived to an activity room that was full of…yes, activity.  So we walked in and added more activity, closing in on some vague tipping point into chaos.  But we managed to avoid that and come out with almost 100 beautiful arrangements.  Here’s Emily with a cart full of flowers, ready to head off to the rooms for delivery.  She was calm and collected throughout - her steady presence keeping us from that tipping point.  And her humor and genuine, open-hearted good nature a pleasure to be around.

SPICY VOLUNTEERS

Spicy volunteers?  Is that how to indicate that the three volunteers we had help us today are ‘well seasoned’?    I don’t know, but Judy, Emily and Lizzee have all helped us numerous times at various facilities.  They are naturals and a lot of fun.

Lizzee’s volunteered so much that she says she’s reached her photo quota.  But in case you haven’t been reading our website, I’ve got to include at least one photo of her here.   Lizzee’s in the photo to the right, Judy’s on the left.  Now Judy probably won’t be thrilled with that photo of her, but I included it here because I was so impressed with her dexterity and confidence -  joking around while carrying a pair of shears and a cup full of water and flowers!  For a more flattering photo of Judy, and to find out what our morning was like, click here.  Or scroll down through our volunteer page to find more photos of these wonderful women helping out Second Bloom!

All these colorful flowers from The Fresh Market were made into 100 bouquets for all the residents at The Laurels of GreenTree Ridge to have in their rooms.  Emily and I wheeled that beautiful cart around to every room, handing out our bouquets and talking to everyone we met.  Here’s a photo of Ruth receiving her arrangement from Emily.

OUR VOLUNTEERS ARE GROWING

It was a banner volunteer day for Second Bloom.  We had five, yes five! volunteers.  More than ever before. Unheard of.  Amazing and miraculous.  Fabuloso.  So many volunteers that we had to spread out to two facilities.  Pat, Peggy and Melinda were at Courtyard.  Pat’s in the upper left photo, Melinda on the right and Peggy below. It was Peggy and Pat’s first time with us but they seemed to fit right in and have a good time.

Over at Highland Farms, Emily and Judy were putting out beautiful arrangements like the one that Judy’s giving to Michelle, one of the staff.  Judy has her own business, Your Vase or Mine, during the growing season.  Beautiful gardens at her East Asheville home.  In fact, she’s generously offered to host a fundraiser for Second Bloom on Tuesday, June 30 -details will be following as it gets closer.

I know I say this a lot….but do you notice the smiles on our volunteers?  This happiness is contagious - the effect to all those we give flowers to is real and noticeable!  Hats off, once again, to our volunteers!

DRESSING FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

It didn’t escape my attention that both Judy and Melinda wore red on Valentine’s Day.  Why not?  What better day?  They both volunteered their time, their heart and their talent to create arrangements for all the patients at The Care Partners Solace Center. Judy’s pictured on the right and Melinda on the left.

We had some beautiful flowers from Fresh Market in Hendersonville that Jackie picked up for us. And let’s not forget to give three cheers for Fresh Market’s generosity! They donate every week and provide flowers for many of our homes.  We wouldn’t be bringing such joy to folks if it weren’t for them.

But back to our volunteers, because that’s what this page is about.  We were very grateful to Melinda and Judy for coming out on a Saturday afternoon to help.  We had been at the Laurels of GreenTree Ridge in the morning, so having more help in the afternoon was very welcome.  To have talented help like they provided was even better!  See some more photos from their afternoon.