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SIERRA MADRE, Calif. — For more than 17 years, unused flowers left over from the construction of Rose Parade floats have been used to deliver thousands of bright arrangements and the message of Jesus’ love to senior care centers, thanks to a chuch ministry.
The Rose Parade Flower Ministry delivered about 100,000 flowers to more than 160 rest homes from Burbank to La Verne in 2009. Nearly 300 volunteers went to senior care homes and hospitals in 22 cities of the San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles County.
The process of collecting and delivering the flowers starts every year on New Year's Eve, after the floats are fully gowned in flowers and moved to the parade route, said ministry leader Keith Jesson. Hundreds of buckets, many filled with the 5 percent to 10 percent of the extra flowers ordered for the event, are left by companies such as Phoenix Decorating. The ministry has an agreement with the decorating company— which helps construct about half the floats—that enables them to take the flowers.
Volunteers come not only from Lake Avenue Church in Glendale, Calif., but from the surrounding area as well, Jesson said.
“We go in with our trucks and pick the flowers up and bring them back to Lake Avenue Church,” said Jesson, who has led the group along with his wife, Sue, since 1998. “Then, on New Year’s Day, in the afternoon, we have about 80 people that will come to the church parking garage. We trim the flowers down to the size that will fit into the containers.”
Volunteers meet again on the morning of Jan. 2 to pick up their assignments and the flowers. By previous arrangement, the staff at the rest homes and hospitals already know the volunteers are coming. The group tries to deliver all of the flowers by dinnertime in order to not interrupt the facilities’ regular schedule.
“A lot of residents we visit say, ‘You’re the only person who has come to see me over the holidays,'” Jesson said. “We touch a tremendous need in the lives of these people just by bringing the flowers, chatting with them, sharing the love of Christ and asking if we can say a prayer for them. We get an overwhelming response from the individuals who have seen the parade on TV and are so thrilled to be able to touch and smell the flowers.”
The ministry began after the Rose Parade in 1992, when Tuck and Judy Forsythe witnessed truckloads of flowers at Brookside Park being hauled away from the Phoenix Decorating company's massive float pavilions. When they learned that the blooms were being taken to a dump, Tuck Forsythe asked if he could take some to a nearby nursing home. The Forsythes filled their car trunk twice before all the flowers were gone. Later that year, they were able to partner with the decorating company in securing the extra flowers for distribution.
Volunteers are given guidelines on how to talk to the frail and elderly, Jesson said. Those delivering flowers go to assigned areas sometimes as couples, families, or in small groups.
Jesson told of a married couple with two boys who said the experience of giving flowers to the people in rest homes was the “best family experience they’ve ever had.”
“The people who are delivering the flowers get as blessed as those who have received them,” he said. “When parents take their children, especially, the residents just love it. It is very special for everyone involved.”
Jesson said he tries to make sure he is spending enough time with each recipient.
“When I do it, I arrange the flowers when I’m talking, and when we finish our conversation I ask if I can say a prayer. They always say ‘yes,’ and then I move on to the next one.”
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