If you don’t remember, last Wednesday was beautiful. It felt more like summer than fall with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s.
For most of us, though, it was a work day – and that can always bring your mood down a bit. The hustle and bustle of the daily grind can wear on you, especially on hump day. But if you happened to be walking down South Main Street around lunch time, there’s a good chance I may given you a beautiful bouquet of flowers – or more likely two.
Don’t worry, my wife was fully aware of the fact I was asking perfect strangers if they wanted flowers.
All I was doing was helping the good folks over at Cole Gardens with Petal It Forward, a nationwide initiative of the Society of Florists who get flower shops around the country to hand out free flowers. I was working with Emma Shapiro-Barnard, and we killed it out there. We were giving them away so fast that we couldn’t keep flowers in the bucket.
Studies show that flowers have an immediate impact on happiness and a long-term positive effect on moods. Sounds about right.
“It’s all about making people happy,” said Jane Iarussi from Cole Gardens. “I don’t think people know how important flowers are.”
We know, what’s the catch? Nothing ever is really free.
Well, you’re technically right, because the reason for two bouquets was to keep the good feelings going throughout the day. The purpose of Petal It Forward was that the recipient of the initial offering was to keep one bunch to enjoy and then give the second one away to someone you feel would like it.
Many said they were going to give the extra flowers to their significant other. Another was going to surprise her boss. Emily Albright and Sonna Obiorah were given a bouquet from some random guy they didn’t know while eating lunch downtown.
And as someone who was able to hand out a lot of flowers (there were about 300 bouquets in all), I could see the level of happiness getting a random bunch of flowers did for others.
“I passed a lady on the street and she said, ‘Go down there and get some flowers,’ ” said Steve Worrell. “So I’ll brighten up my wife’s day.”
Some people had heard about the program on the news, while others were completely surprised when I gave them my spiel.
Since it was lunch time, there were lots of “customers” walking the streets and I even ventured into traffic. Cars were stopped at the light heading toward North Main so I figured why not see if they want some flowers?
I even gave two bunches to one of Concord’s finest, Master Patrolman Almedin Dzelic, who was going to give one to his wife.
