Discarded Flowers Reused in Random Acts of Kindness

Larsen Jay is a man who knows the power of flowers and the joy they can bring.

After falling from a ladder, Larsen was confined to a hospital bed and had to endure a long and painful recovery. Fortunately, he received many visitors and cards. The attention and outpouring did wonders for his mood. His hospital room was filled with flowers. The explosion of color and fragrance brightened his day and his hospital confinement.

Sadly, many of the other hospital rooms in Knoxville, Tennessee were entirely bare of flowers. His solution was to go back to his own room, remove the cards from his bouquets and give them away to flower-less rooms on the ward.

The reaction he received from this simple gesture was overwhelming. Thus, Random Acts of Flowers was born.

Along with a team of volunteers, Larsen collects flowers from grocery stores, weddings, funerals and other events where they would otherwise be thrown away. In the small donated space of an old warehouse, the flowers are sorted at the Random Acts of Flowers headquarters.

Nothing is left to waste. Everything is repurposed. Even the dead flowers are used for compost. No bouquet is given as it is collected; it is always lovingly re-arranged by the passionate volunteers.

The volunteers range from former florists to people with no experience. Often they are patients who pledged, after receving bouquets, to volunteer themselves one day.

Deliveries go out to nursing homes, hospitals and hospices – anywhere flowers might bring cheer to someone’s day.

Larsen hopes that Random Acts of Kindness will be reproduced in communities across the country, and abroad. “There are always flowers being thrown away,” Larsen says. “And there are always sick people who could use them.”

(WATCH the video from Bus 52 – For more info, visit RandomActsofFlowers.org)