EDINA, Minn. — Volunteers are soaking up the work at Bluebirds and Blooms.
The nonprofit re-purposes flowers from weddings, funerals, and grocery stores and sends them to memory care homes and hospices around the Twin Cities.
"What we usually used to do is make bouquets and take them into the rooms and talk with our residents for a little bit and just kind of have that social interaction which is so important for people that are dealing with memory care issues," explained Rashmi Seneviratne, Executive Director of Bluebirds and Blooms.
However, COVID-19 forced volunteers to rearrange their presentation.
"Now we just put them in buckets like that and we drop them off at the front doors and then residents and the communities make their own bouquets," Seneviratne continued.
Program Director Elizabeth Lind agreed the flowers have grown into meaningful activities.
"They do arranging, often times they'll send me a little anecdotes and stories about where they have used the flowers to create a bouquet. A couple weeks ago, it was for one of the residents who turned 103. So many of them made bouquets for her and they got to do a special something to celebrate her 103rd birthday," recalled Lind.
Bluebirds and Blooms' mission is to combine conservation and recycling with kindness and empathy.
"This is just a simple gesture for us to show them that they're not forgotten, that we remember them and that they matter," said Seneviratne.
Bluebirds and Blooms gets its funding from donations, grants and fundraisers.
There's a fundraiser coming up in October and all of the money goes directly to getting more flowers into memory care communities.
To learn how to volunteer and donate, head to bluebirdsandblooms.com