Hands-On Asheville, a non-profit that organizes volunteers, found us four and a half great volunteers for Valentine’s Day at the Laurels of GreenTree Ridge.  Here’s a great photo of Lisa (in blue) standing with Melody, Niki and Ali and her son Avery.  Seated in front amid the flowers is Marjorie, who helps us eachtime we come.  And seated in the back in red is Esau, who was overseeing what we were up to.  This photo was taken while Sarah, on the left was driving up and down Sweeten Creek Road looking for us.  But she found us in plenty of time to help make over 100 bouquets to brighten up the rooms of all the residents.  These women all had talent and we paid some attention so we could pick up some pointers and pass them along to our next volunteers.

Our flowers today came from The Fresh Market, both in Hendersonville and Asheville.  We held them over in the coldest room in my house and they did quite well.  Check out Second Bloom’s cooler.  Since we never know when we’re getting flowers or how many we’re going to get, it was great to have such an abundance for our volunteers to work with.  A great assortment of size, colors and textures.  The arrangements were beautiful.

Avery, Ali’s son and our youngest volunteer yet at age 5, made several bouquets but he seemed to like handing them out best.  Everyone loved seeing him come into their room, wishing them a Happy Valentine’s Day and leaving flowers.  He usually didn’t stay long because he was on a mission to get flowers into every room, but his gift was easily seen in the smiles he left on the residents’ faces.  Here Ali and Avery are with Lloyd.  Those flowers added some wonderful color to his room!

But Avery wasn’t the only one visiting the residents and wishing them Happy Valentine’s Day.  Here’s Niki giving Oma a beautiful bouquet.  She was delighted to have flowers again.  While Avery, Ali and Niki were wheeling their cart of flowers down one hallway, Sarah and Melody were bringing their gifts to residents on another hallway.  To the right is Melody with Charles and on the left is Sarah with Priscilla and Francis.

All of our volunteers showed up today with open hearts, smiles and a genuine willingness to engage with people.  You can see that in all of these photos.  Look at some of the others pics we took today.