A Treasure Coast nonprofit is giving leftover flowers from weddings and other events a second life by turning them into small arrangements for people who could use a little unexpected joy.
Susana Mahaffey, who works in the wedding industry, said she repeatedly saw beautiful arrangements discarded after receptions.
"A lot of times there was leftover flowers, and these beautiful arrangements would just end up in the trash," Mahaffey said. "Sometimes they want to give them to their guests to take home, but if guests are flying on an airplane, that makes transport sort of difficult. So I've just seen it time and time again where they just get thrown away, and we literally ask the bride, what would you like to do with all these flowers, and she says, 'oh, I don't know. I guess we can just throw them away,' and it would break my heart."
That experience led Mahaffey to start Bloom Again, a new nonprofit on the Treasure Coast that collects flowers from weddings, galas and other events and repurposes them for people in the community.
The flowers are taken apart and rearranged into smaller bouquets before being delivered to hospice and assisted living facilities.
"We collect leftover event flowers from weddings, from galas, all up and down the Treasure Coast. We bring it back to our space, and our volunteers take those arrangements apart, and then put them together in little bedside bouquets. Then we go deliver them to V&A Hospice House here in Vero, and a few different assisted living facilities in the area as well, and we're looking to grow that as well," she said.
The idea took shape after Mahaffey brought flowers to a friend named Cookie, who was receiving hospice care.
"I brought her some flowers after a wedding, and I just remember how much it brightened the room. It made her feel better. It made her family feel better," she said. "It was a little extra love that no one was really planning on receiving, and it just brightened everything. And that's where the idea started from."
Cookie later died while in hospice care. Mahaffey said Bloom Again was created in her memory.
"I started this in her honor. She would have loved this mission," she said. "She loves to source little vases at Goodwill. We would go thrift shopping together. I hope she's proud of the mission that we've created, because this way we can keep having other flowers, making people smile, and that's the whole goal."
The organization has developed a process for quickly moving donated flowers from events to recipients. Flowers are collected the night of an event, then prepared for volunteers the following morning.
"We collect the flowers that night. We take them apart from the containers that they're in and put them in buckets with water in the fridge, in air conditioning. The next morning, we get together with our volunteers, put them together in vases, and then split up into teams and go deliver them accordingly, wherever we have, according to how many we have," she said.
Bloom Again began in March and has delivered 33 arrangements so far. Mahaffey said the organization is preparing for increased activity as wedding season picks back up.
"I'm really hoping that we're going to have weekends full of flowers and we can jump this number. It's small right now. We started this in March, and then wedding season kind of took a little break over the summer," she said. "We're just getting geared up. We've got our volunteers ready. We've got our space ready."
The nonprofit's goal is to deliver 300 arrangements during its first year.
Mahaffey said she eventually hopes the project can expand beyond the Treasure Coast, with volunteers in other communities collecting and repurposing flowers.
"I'd love to grow this project where we could have different volunteers in different areas, kind of having different posts where we can do the same thing but help brides in different areas of Florida. And then one day, who knows, even nationwide, I'd love to grow this leaps and bounds," she said.
For now, Bloom Again is seeking volunteers and donations of leftover event flowers.
"I miss her terribly, but I know she's in a better spot," Mahaffey said of Cookie. "Hopefully she's really proud of the mission that we've done because we're helping other people smile and making them feel good like the flowers did for her once."