Industry News BY KATIE HENDRICK VINCENT AND MARY WESTBROOK
INDUSTRY MEMBERS COME TOGETHER TO SUPPORT COMMUNITIES IN PAIN
> In early June, the team at Mayesh Houston was looking for a way to ex- press their sadness, anger and heartache over the death of George Floyd. So, they put out a call on Instagram asking for floral designers who could help put to- gether between 500 and 800 bouquets for Floyd’s memorial service, held on June 9 in Houston. The response was overwhelming. “Within an hour of the post we had
too many responses and had to take the post down in order to maintain safe social distancing,” said Tawny McJunkins, a project manager at Mayesh. “That was very heartwarming.” With 50 volunteer floral designers
and members of the public ready to help and 7,000 donated cut flowers from Mayesh and hardgoods from Floral Supply Syndicate, Yvonne Ashton, Mayesh’s director of marketing, coordi- nated a plan with the Texas Organizing Project, a local nonprofit, to get the bou- quets to grieving community members. Thanks to the strong response, the team was able to create a total of 1,000 hand- wrapped bouquets. “The local florists were so quick
to jump on the project… the response was just unbelievable,” said McJunkins, noting that the initiative was focused on community building, not publicity. “It was really about offering whatever small bit of love, light, condolences, sympathy those bouquets could bring the recipient. People were so grateful, and so kind. It was incredibly touching.”
‘A Way to Give Back’ Fawn Dellit of F. Dellit Designs in Houston said she participated because she wanted a way to give back and feel part of the community. “I wanted to do so much more than
to just post on Instagram or Facebook and move on,” she explained. “We all need to take action, to learn, to listen. I think donating our time to make bou- quets for George Floyd’s service is just a small, small effort we took to show we cared.” A similar spirit motivated about 30 volunteers from both the industry
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SOCIAL MOVEMENT Greenleaf Wholesale Florist in Houston was the site of a group effort to create memorial flowers for George Floyd’s funeral.
and general public to come together at Greenleaf Wholesale Florist in Houston to create an 8-foot-tall floral installation that was displayed in the front foyer of the church for Floyd’s service. The design included a Black Lives Matter fist designed in red roses on one side and the letters “BLM” in a blue and white design on the other side. “It was a really heartfelt, cathar-
tic effort,” said Beth O’Reilly, AIFD, Greenleaf’s director of education and merchandising. “We knew we wanted to make a statement in support of Black Lives Matter and in honor of George. We’re all artists, and our language is flowers, so we wanted to speak through flowers.”
A History of Activism In Washington, D.C., the team at Lee’s Flower and Card Shop also came to- gether to show their support for Black Lives Matter, including via a new store- front display created by a local group of artists. As detailed last year in Floral
Management, the shop has a long history in the city and the civil rights movement. In 2018, Rick Lee was a featured speaker alongside D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at an event commem- orating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
FLORAL MANAGEMENT | July/August 2020 |
WWW.SAFNOW.ORG
At that time, Lee shared his memories of living in the city in 1968, including his own efforts to save the family business from destruction as violence flared in Washington. After Floyd’s death in May, an
outdoor mural depicting Lee’s parents, the founders of the business, was defaced, but Stacie Lee Banks, AAF, said a community member offered to pay for the repairs. “The dynamics are definitely different from ’68,” Rick Lee shared with the local NBC affiliate as he affirmed the family’s commitment to racial justice. “I’m a very firm believer in God and God I feel will take care of us.” (Read more about the family on p. 2.) The Black Lives Matter move-
ment also has inspired black industry members to speak up about their per- sonal stories dealing with racism. “I have been in the event industry for six years full time and I have experienced count- less moments that I can tie to racism,” said Bron Hansboro of The Flower Guy Bron in Richmond, Virginia, during the June 10 episode of “Mornings with Mayesh.” Hansboro said he decided to speak up and start the social media movement #unitythroughcommunity to create a “unifying message” for change, and a better future. “I feel like my silence needs to end and that I need to speak directly to racism in our industry.”
GLYNN HAGLEY
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