AIFD Convention Day 2/ Blooms Over DC

Blooms Over Program takes all the leftover flowers from the runway shows, etc  and recycles them into arrangements / bouquets to be distributed to the general public at places like hospitals, hospice, retirement centers and the like.
      This program began in 1993 by Kurt Pamper AIFD at the San Francisco Symposium, and has been a part of symposium every year since.

This was the first year I have chaired a program, and the first year AIFD has partnered with another company to expand the Blooms Over program to reach its maximum potential.    We (AIFD) contacted  Petal Share, a non-profit organization that has been recycling flowers from weddings and special events in the DC area for several years now. 

Heather at Petal Share was instrumental in working with me to reach so many people this year in the DC area.  Her knowledge of  the facilities and people that would benefit the most from our program was a tremendous help.

Recycling flowers doesn't sound very difficult but it does require planning and organization.   We designed and delivered 960 bouquets....that is a lot of hard work to make and deliver...over a 48 hour period. 

So from the beginning, this is what my work area looked like:

Flowers needed to be organized by type, prototypes made, and volunteers assembled to make all those bouquets! 

The Blooms program had so many talented designers drop in and make beautiful bouquets all day long and into the next day.  Student designers from Ohio State University, College of Nevada, Idaho, and Golden West College.  

The logistics of packing up and delivering these bouquets, keeping count, and schlepping buckets of water all over the hotel kept us busy.  

  Sending Heather pics of the buckets so she could gauge how many buckets would fit in her truck and the vehicles of the Petal Share volunteers the next day.  I couldn't find a tape measure so, yes, I used my foot!