Saturday, May 19, 6:34 pm
A Hope Blooms In Olympic Flowers
Image Source: www.sports.yahoo.com
The Sip of Life today brings a very unique inspiring story of Olympic flowers, which not many of you must be aware of. Athletes are given a bouquet of flowers after every Olympic event and they come from Just Beginnings Flowers (JBF) and Margitta’s Flowers in Surrey, British Columbia.
Now the inspiration behind these flowers is June Strandberg, the owner of Just Beginnings Flowers who teaches art of floristry to women who have left prison, recovering addicts, those suffering disabilities or who have been the victims of violence. This noble work has surely helped in bettering the community and Strandberg has even taken this noble cause behind bars, where she educates convicts. 75 year old, Strandberg’s work earned her a YWCA Woman of Distinction award in 2003.
She has set up her shop in Phoenix Centre, near Surrey Memorial Hospital. The bouquets which are made under strict regulations are 20 to 30 centimeters tall and about 25 centimeters across. For the Vancouver Olympics the florists made 1,800 bouquets, 1,707 of which will be given to medal-winning athletes in the Olympics and Paralympics held in February and March.
The Vancouver Sun in January this year profiled Strandberg in an news story, “Hope blooms for the disadvantaged”. An extract from it states, “Life hasn’t always been easy for Tandice Bartlett. As a teenager, the 22-year-old Surrey resident found herself heading along a dark and troubled path. She had dropped out of school and struggled with addiction. Then she met June Strandberg and good things started to bloom — quite literally.”
“It’s not about what happened yesterday with these women, it’s about what road they’re on today, it really is. They have to be in the right space and aimed in the right direction. That’s how we help them”, says Strandberg in Surrey Now when she was profiled in 2008.
Between 80 and 150 bouquets were made each day, and when you consider the societal benefits behind these flowers, you can say these bouquets as valuable as the medals. Hope today’s sip leaves a lasting taste for all those reading this, and will be a source of inspiration in every endeavour of yours in times to come.
Do visit http://www.justbeginningsflowers.com/ to read more about JBF, which is indeed a beginning towards bringing a positive change in the society.
Just Beginnings Flowers
13686 94A Avenue
Surrey, British Columbia
Canada V3V 1N1
Phone: 604.582.8298
info@justbeginningsflowers.com
“Truly inspiring ! and that reminds me of the saying-”I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy!”"
“luks cool engh:-)”
It’s a SEXY blog. 10/10 for the design. And better than many stupid news features carried by various city pullouts stories like `pink churidaar is in’ or `wear green sandals this summer.’ For all I know, Amit is a hard news kinds and someone who understates himself a lot. You could say — out of the story of the rabbit and the tortoise we read during childhood — he is the tortoise. I find in this blog a lot of regurgitation he couldn’t do in the mundane newspaper world because of limitations all journalists have in the corporate-run news world.
Its good to see that the flowers are without the plastic wrapping as against the practice adopted by the Indians. Even in the seminars, conference, honouring etc. where we talk of saving of the environment and yet the flowers are wrapped with plastic. Further, even in the gift wraps, though not directly related with your article yet, I would like to put across that the gifts are also wrapped in plastic sheets. We show our love to whom we gift but forget the mother earth.