Let’s get some flowers on these dining room tables at the Mansion. Food and dining room gatherings are essential in assisted care life. And the residents are desperate for living things to look at: especially color and light.
We’ve shipped a dozen air plants to the Mansion, arriving this week.
Tania Woodward, a dedicated and creative aide, has been asked by the Mansion to deal with me and steer ideas to me for the residents, for the building.
She can prioritize my needs and is close to the residents and the aides.
This is incredibly helpful to me and good for the Mansion and our work in the Army of Good. We are doing the right things in the right way and making a difference.
Tania has tons of ideas, and I like almost all of them.
She has charged up our Mansion work, got me jumping. The work was difficult during the pandemic, but on track now. She’s also helped me to focus on the Memory Care work the Mansion is doing.
We have lots of ideas for cooking, including restoring the Pen Pal program, my meditation and prayer sessions, and my portrait series.
Tania’s idea of the moment is to get fresh and colorful flowers on the dining room tables of the Mansion, the ones in the main dining room above, and the three tables out in the Great Room, in order to provide some social distancing in the age of the pandemic.
My idea – I’m working with Heidi, the florist at Country Power Products, Inc. in Greenwich, N.Y. – to get small and straightforward, and long-lasting flowers on every dining room table. Heidi is fun to work with and inexpensive.
Every resident sees this three times a day, seven days a week. It can boost morale and promote community. It also brightens days.
I want to make this a permanent thing, once or twice every month. I’m checking on the costs (I’ll deliver them myself) and shooting for arrangements that will total between one and two hundred dollars, eight to 10 times a year.
I could use some help: Flower Fund, via Paypal, [email protected], via Venmo, Jon-Katz@Jon-Katz-13. By check, Jon Katz, Mansion or Flower Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
Small donations are essential to the work of the Army Of Good and very welcome. Big ones are nice, also.
Thanks, this is one of those small acts of great kindness that can light people up. The Mansion residents love to see living and colorful things.
May I offer a suggestion? In past I have donated most flowers from funerals to nursing homes in the area. I know for a time it couldn’t be done due to Covid but it’s an idea to look into.
Chris, thanks for the suggestion. We are a small town and we don’t have a lot of regular funerals here, also the flowers we need are different, I suspect than the ones that go to funerals. We want small, simply long-lasting flowers. I do appreciate the suggestion. I think I’ll have no trouble raising the money and I like the idea of getting them fresh flowers.
How about getting small pots of colorful flowers for the tables? I’m thinking of primrose or African violets potted plants. They are green and have colorful blooms.
I’ll pass it on Holly, Heidi the florist also has some good and inexpensive ideas..I don’t.
I came here to suggest the same thing. Also lovely and easy keepers are small was begonias. I’m sure the florist would have other ideas. I personally have found that spending a few dollars on a plant lasts much longer than cut flowers — and the joy of having an actual living thing adds to the positive energy! Again, just suggestions. And the entire idea as posted is lovely.
Money for flowers when people are literally starving and being blown to bits in Ukraine???
Air plants, Lisa, they cost $9
P.S. My proofreading software changed air plants to airplanes before it was pointed out to me, it was changed back. I admit to being a bit surprised anyone on the earth would think we were sending a dozen airplanes to the Mansion. Social media never ceases to amaze and surprise me. But thanks for asking.
Lisa, before making a complete fool of yourself, you ought to know we just raised nearly $10,000 to help a Ukraine family get to the United States.
So yes, I am spending $50 or $60 dollars to help people at the edge of love have some color and light in their lives, and I will keep doing it all year. It’s not their fault that the people of Ukraine are suffering so badly. Adding their suffering will not help a single person.
If you don’t like it, get lost. I don’t recall seeking your approval, and I am certainly not interested in it. I assume you are still living your life, eating, watching the news, talking to your family, sleeping. Did you ever have a flower while the people of Myanmar have been slaughtered by the tens of thousands of years? Or because of the genocide in Chechnya or Syria or Ethiopia or Kenya? I hope that answered your many question marks.
You don’t belong here, so please go away. Best jon
Lisa, we cannot fix what is happening in the Ukraine, and nothing stops someone from choosing to donate to humanitarian relief in addition to helping provide some flowers to being sorely needed cheer and comfort. The fact that we are on the brink of WWIII is all the more reason to bring joy to those in our own communities. More power to the Army of Good!
I started buying flowers each week at the local Safeway when COVID started, and you’re right Jon, having life and color inside helps a lot. I would recommend Astromeria, which come in a lot of different colors and last 2 weeks if they are in tight buds when bought. Flowers in the chrysanthemum family also last a couple of weeks generally, and there are a lot of varieties.
Nicely said. Mr. Katz.