Wrap up — Flowers Against Loneliness

“Kun kukissa on niin ihana tuoksukin, se tuntuu hyvältä. Kukat maljakoissa on niin ihania, ettei niitä raaski heittää pois. Onneksi ne usein kestää kauan hyvinä.” — Kirsti, 69 vuotta

“When flowers are so wonderful, even the scent, it feels good. In the vases, the flowers are so lovely that they are not hastily thrown away. Fortunately, they often last long.” — Kirsti, 69 years old

— Gorgeous words from one recipient of flowers sent through our Flowers Against Loneliness bouquet donation campaign. —

Flowers Against Loneliness (FAL, for short) was our FIRST-EVER donation campaign, and it was a terrific success, raising just over €3000 for FloweRescue!

The campaign launched on 1 February and was created to share the flower love with people who were living in isolation or at-risk of loneliness. Each €8 donation sent one bouquet of rescue flowers to a resident at an elder care home in the Helsinki metropolitan area.

Nearly 200 individual donors sent 383 bouquets, which were delivered to 16 different elder care homes. Thirty six volunteers helped to process and sort flowers and to make and deliver bouquets, and together we rescued over 6,000 flowers during the campaign.

FAL happened to coincide with the third wave of the coronavirus here in Finland, so we had to drastically limit volunteer group sizes and could not hand out the bouquets directly, but instead entrusted them to nursing staff to distribute.

Still, for both the recipients and volunteers, the #rescueflower bouquets offered a colorful and cheerful reminder of our connectedness.

But now, as we wrap up FAL, coronavirus restrictions are easing and we look forward to a busy and interactive summer! In May we will resume our community volunteer evenings, and hope to return to the elder care homes for in-person workshops in June and July.

Thanks to all of you who supported the Flowers Against Loneliness campaign in some form or fashion; let's keep connecting through the beauty and joy of flowers!