Six years ago, on a cold January morning, two friends met for coffee to discuss how they could brighten the lives of their local elderly community.
The pair – Laura Hogan and Karen Wooldridge – had long wanted to give back to seniors because they had personally witnessed how lonely some can get in extended-term care facilities.
“Karen’s father had Alzhemer’s before he passed and Laura has a connection to hospice care,” Elizabeth Lind, executive director of Bluebirds & Blooms, explains. “They saw patients who didn’t receive visits, cards, or a lot of outside love. It saddened, but also motivated them.”
Then, right before the monumental coffee date, they heard a story about a woman in Idaho who used flowers as a way to spread joy and they were inspired to do the same right here in Minnesota.
“Launching from that idea, they decided to use flowers that were otherwise going to be thrown away and make arrangements for folks in memory and long-term care,” Elizabeth says.
And so, with a whole lot of empathy and even more hard work, Bluebirds & Blooms was born.
“The operation started out very tiny,” Elizabeth says. “Just the two of them would go to local grocery stores and ask if they had any extra flowers. Then they would bring the usable stems back to their kitchen tables to make about 20 arrangements. Sometimes a few friends or family members would get involved.”
After the bouquets were made, Laura and Karen would find a senior community they could visit to deliver their creations.
“Everything kind of snowballed from there and the non-profit grew rapidly,” Elizabeth says.
Now instead of it being just the duo and a few extra hands, Bluebirds & Blooms includes four paid staff members and over 100 volunteers.
“Our volunteers help us in so many ways,” she says. “They are tasked with picking up flowers from different stores, deconstructing donated arrangements for viable stems and composting the rest, arranging bouquets on Mondays and Wednesdays, and visiting patients with blooms. It takes a village and we are lucky enough to have a community full of helpers.”
Bluebirds also started partnering with floral retailers to be able to receive flowers on a routine, scheduled basis. Volunteers pick up flowers six days a week from different partners including Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Bachmann’s and more.
“The interesting part is that we never know what we are going to get,” Elizabeth says. “We don't know if we are going to get three carloads of perfect flowers or two bins of what will become compost. Either way, we take the donation and are super appreciative of everything. If we didn’t have the floral partners, we wouldn’t be able to reach nearly as many senior facilities/communities as we do.”
To date, Bluebirds & Blooms has served over 64 facilities in Edina and the surrounding areas, and that number just keeps climbing.
“Since we visit so many facilities now, we have each on a scheduled day of the month,” Elizabeth says. “That way it’s more manageable for us and the seniors have a specific date to look forward to. We also do this because keeping to our sustainability mindset, we use mason jars and beautified tin cans as the flower holders. Each senior leaves out their old one before getting a new arrangement. We take the old holder and reuse it for another time.”
Although a lot has changed since its humble inception, Bluebirds’ goal has stayed the same: extending joy and connection.
“According to the National Center for Health Statistics, an estimated 60% of seniors receive no visitors and that right there is why we do what we do,” Elizabeth says. “We come in, bring them flowers, sit with them and listen to their stories. Sometimes they like to show us around their room and share their pictures.
“I have been with Bluebirds for four years now and it’s a wonderful thing to watch them lighten up. They just want someone to talk to and we are ready to listen.”
To support Bluebirds & Blooms, visit bluebirdsandblooms.com or call 952-452-9664.
