As Valentine’s Day approaches, The Bloom Project is extending the life of unsold flowers by sharing them with hospice and palliative care patients. Year-round, The Bloom Project takes unsold flowers from local stores – like Trader Joe’s and Newport Avenue Market – and creates then delivers fresh bouquets for those in need, sending beauty and joy during a very difficult time.
Countless companies – Trader Joe’s, Sunriver Resort, Newport Avenue Market – donate thousands of flowers daily to The Bloom Project workshops, where volunteers weed out the freshest selections and transform them into beautiful bouquets that are then delivered directly to the patients. With locations in Bend, Portland and Sacramento, last year The Bloom Project received 10,000 gifted hours and delivered more than 32,000 bouquets.
“After 23 years in the meeting and event planning industry, I saw countless beautiful arrangements discarded,” said founder and president Heidi Berkman. “Around the same time, someone very close to me was being cared for by hospice. I saw firsthand how all of those wasted flowers could bring joy to patients and their families.”
An Oregon-based nonprofit The Bloom Project receives each of its flowers from donations provided by floral distributors, local stores, community members and special events. Volunteers repurpose the flowers into beautiful bouquets, ready to deliver to local hospice and palliative care patients. Since The Bloom Project’s inception in 2009, it has distributed 77,955 bouquets with more than 28,000 donated volunteer hours.
Berkman and her team of volunteers are committed to sustainable business practices. Not only are they eco-friendly in their efforts to repurpose flowers from their partners, but also by composting floral waste. The Bloom Project is actively providing flowers bouquets to more than 20 hospice and palliative care facilities in Portland, Oregon, Central Oregon and Sacramento-Placer Region, California.
Founded in 2007 by Heidi Berkman in Bend, Oregon. The Bloom Project is a volunteer-run nonprofit that provides fresh floral bouquets to hospice and palliative care patients. The flowers are repurposed by volunteers into beautiful bouquets ready to deliver to local hospice and palliative care patients. Volunteers come from all different backgrounds; many are retired or have no floral experience. Members of the team with floral design experience host training sessions, teaching new volunteers how to: care for the flowers, identify which flowers to keep and properly arrange a bouquet Berkman and her team of volunteers are committed to sustainable business practices. Not only are they eco-friendly in their efforts to repurpose flowers from their partners, but also by composting floral waste.
