During the Covid pandemic, charitable giving in Canada declined drastically while global demand for cut flowers increased exponentially —  it was off the charts and remains elevated. 

So thanks to all of you, Everyday Bouquets has become a sneaky little way to kill two birds with one stone!

The flowers you buy from me not only fill your home with cheer, they also help local families who need an extra hand these days. So let me tell you about it all, I need a numbered list! 

1. The family immigrating from Mexico 

 

This was the original inspiration for Everyday Bouquets, and if you haven’t read the updates so far, go back and read all those other newsletters I’m always shoving through your mail slots!

 

Quick synopsis: our part-time nanny Noelia has been on a mission to bring her two children (teenagers) to join her here in Canada as she immigrates. She’s a single mom, her parents back in Mexico have been raising her kids while she works here as the breadwinner, sending money home. Last summer, despite the pandemic, she put her plans into motion and booked flights and found an apartment so her children could join her — they are here now and enrolled in school and learning English and reunited with their mother. Everyday Bouquets helped by raising money for these flights, damage deposit, school supplies, extra money for groceries, you name it!

 

So that brings us up to December: because of all your gift subscriptions which you bought for your loved ones, we were able to give Noelia a $1,000 Christmas bonus of grocery gift cards and cash. 

 

Also, if you recall, at that time I was looking for another family to share childcare with for two days a week so that Noelia would have full-time work. (We only needed her — and could afford her — three days a week.) My efforts were not met with success and I was starting to fret for her. So on December 20th I pulled the trigger and told her we would employ her full-time starting in the new year. I didn’t want her to be fearful for her future, especially over Christmas. (Her kids had been asking about her employment situation and she told them, “That’s for me to worry about, not you, I’m the Mom.”)

 

That was the scariest business decision I’ve made yet: because the only way we were going to afford that was if I sold a whack-tonne of flower subscriptions! So I reasoned, if I have two more days of childcare a week, then that’s two more days I can grow the business — so I better get busy! And did I ever: I’ve been working full-tilt and full-time+ since January and I’m proud to say the business is covering her extra income and then some. 

 

In February she got another bonus after Valentine’s Day plus brand new discounted Arcteryx rain jackets for all of them. (I have a hookup, who doesn’t on the North Shore, right?) Because when you don’t have a car… you need a really good coat! The children are adjusting to the weather but are cold. Noelia always wore three layers, even in July, but recently I saw her sporting bare ankles in March and communicated my shock! She smiled proudly — she’s a true Vancouverite now.

 

She gets (paid) sick days — as many as she needs (she’s rarely sick, but it’s usually my kids to blame when she is!) Her own children are keeping healthy and safe in their school bubble, are confident taking public transit, and in 6 short months their English language skills have exploded! I’m in awe of their progress, and able to have back-and-forth conversations with them. Their resilience and adaptability is so heartwarming to witness.

 

My dream is that when my children are old enough for school, that perhaps Noelia can join me in the flower business. She loves flowers too and is very creative (she has an art degree in addition to her education and business degrees, not to mention the online masters in child development she’s currently working on, in her spare time on the weekends.) But the only problem with my dream is that Noelia loves children the way I love flowers! Working with kids enlivens her mind and heart, and her dream is to open her own Spanish-immersion childcare someday. Time will tell for all of us — the problem of the duelling dreams! But she has become my best friend and I vow for us to remain connected even when my children no longer require her daily care. 

 

2. Another North Vancouver family

 

 

In January, Everyday Bouquets made a one-time cash donation of $400 to a newly single mom here in North Vancouver, going through a family breakdown and divorce. She was scrambling to find a basement apartment for herself and teenage child and reached out to me in her attempts to find housing. She didn’t ask for money but I offered it, to help pay for her first month of rent. Initially she declined, but I badgered her to take it and eventually she accepted. 

 

Her story surfaced many feelings for me, because I saw my own mother in her, who also went through a painful divorce when I was a teenager; she was blindsided by my father (who had joined a religious cult) and she was left caring for my brother and myself all on her own. We had housing insecurity too, and helping this woman now felt like a way of helping my own mother way back then. 

 

My mom is gone now, long ago, she died of lung cancer when I was 24. (It’s an awful thing to watch a person die a slow death on a ventilator. Be careful out there these days.) But her favourite flower was the Forget-Me-Not, and my entire “true blue” garden is on the cusp of exploding with these dainty blue blooms all over, as they turn their tiny little flower faces towards the sun. (I’ll try to use these in the Mother’s Day bouquets this year, in honour of my Mom.)

 

 

3. Backpack Buddies

I read about this local charity in the North Shore News, which provides backpacks full of food for local children every weekend, kids whose families struggle with food insecurity. I knew instantly that Everyday Bouquets needed to support this; it’s something my brother and I sure could’ve used way back in our early teens. 

 

There wasn’t any physical abuse in our family growing up, but there was definitely substance abuse and certainly neglect. What little money we had that should’ve been spent on food, was spent on drink. If we were lucky, Mom would win the meat raffle at the Legion, but most nights we ate dinner at our friends’ houses, or houses of families where we babysat — like every night for a year — and eventually we moved in with these two separate families as an informal foster situation that became permanent.

 

So Everyday Bouquets is now a monthly donor of Backpack Buddies, together we all support one kid ($60 a month on my credit card), who can now get a backpack full of food every single Friday, all because you simply buy my flowers. And as more people sign up for flower subscriptions, we’ll be able to help more kids.

 

I dedicated that donation to my brother Adam, who now as an adult says he always has a fridge full of food for his kids, and I reflect on my own household, with two toddlers — my husband and I are constantly jumping up and down to satisfy their constant food requests (out of their earshot we call it “Snack Bitch”…. ‘who’s on ‘Snack B’?’ we joke to each other) but I realize just how lucky we are that we can joke, many other parents out there can’t.

 

4. Pacific Postpartum Society

This is the organization that saved my sanity when my daughter was born 2.5 years ago and I developed postpartum depression and anxiety. I joined the North Shore support group and along with 7 other women met weekly to discuss our experiences. I’m so grateful for this organization and especially for Kerry, the compassionate group leader, and they continue to hold meetings via Zoom during the pandemic, but one bonus of the in-person meetings was the free childcare they provided so the moms could have a rare break and focus on their self-care for 90 minutes. I suspect that’s not happening now and it’s a shame, the moms aren’t getting a real break if so. 

 

Mental health is health, as the world is acknowledging as this pandemic wears on, and mothers especially are carrying the brunt of it. Early motherhood is unrelenting, not unlike a Covid lockdown, with no relief in sight, and my heart goes out to any woman suffering in silence, just trying to hold it together for everyone else who depends on her. 

 

Everyday Bouquets has made a $100 donation to this group with plans for more. A portion of all upcoming Mother’s Day flower subscriptions will be donated too. 

 

5. Lynn Valley Victim Fund

Everyday Bouquets donated $100 to this fund for the group of stabbing victims. We also donated a Hope Bouquet for the online auction which together raised over $3600 for that same fund. (The bouquet raised $45.)

 

6. BCG Counselling Group 

 

We donated a 4-Week Flower Subscription ($140 value) to this online auction in March, which is a local charity that provides mental health counselling on a sliding-fee scale. (I used to be the Executive Director and my husband currently serves on the volunteer board.) If anyone needs silent auction items for other worthy local charities, hit me up! The flower subscription is a hot ticket item. 

Summary

As you can see from this list…my giving is inspired entirely by my personal convictions and experiences. From afar it may seem like a random smattering but up close it comes into focus. This is why I say Everyday Bouquets helps “local families in need”…it’s a large umbrella that covers a broad category of need, of which there is so much. We’re just scratching the surface with what these little flower bouquets can achieve. 

I’ve made a decision since my first newsletter in December. In that newsletter I said that someday (maybe, hopefully) I would be able to draw an income from Everyday Bouquets for myself, that “one could hope!” But now, I retract that statement. I’ve decided I’ll never draw a salary from Everyday Bouquets, that I’ll continue happily  volunteering all of my time to run this little social enterprise — it’s my labour of love. 

 

I want Everyday Bouquets to retain it’s original motive, to remain “pure of heart” (this all started as a little flower stand fundraiser in from of my house, if you remember) and frankly, there’s nothing to draw if I want to keep the prices down and the donations high! Which is exactly what I want. 

 

When I say ALL proceeds support local families in need, I mean ALL of it.

 

Not 1%, not 2%… 100%

 

I take nothing for myself. 

 

I hope you’ll think of that this year when contemplating a Mother’s Day gift (if that’s a consideration for you.) Moms say they don’t need anything, but secretly they just want a card and maybe some flowers (if they’re the flower type), but she’ll feel really good knowing her flowers are helping a family in need. So make your Mom proud and get her a flower subscription! The gift that keeps on giving…and gives back. Because the only thing better than one bouquet, is MORE bouquets!

 

Ok, there, marketing part done… back to philanthropy. 

 

One supporter asked me recently “how can you do this as a volunteer?” Which made me think of something my husband Ben said to me the other day: “I’m really proud of you for doing this” he said about the flower biz, and I replied “I’m really proud of you for feeding us, and keeping the lights on, and paying the mortgage.” So the answer is I couldn’t do this without my husband. All good things flow from Ben, they always have. (We always joke that I was on the Ben Young Scholarship at journalism school!) Which isn’t to say money isn’t tight for us at our house, ohhh it is, but we get by, and we survived on one income when I was a full-time mom, so we can keep on doing that now too. But Ben is one of the most generous people I know. He was the first person I met who would pick up the entire tab at the bar for all of his friends! Dinner too. It’s just in his DNA. He saw it modelled by his brother-in-law Andy who does the same whenever we go visit. “Don’t worry, I got this one,” they say. 

 

“I got this one.” 

 

What a great sentence right? 

 

That’s the feeling I want to impart with the donations and support that Everyday Bouquets provides to these families who just need a little extra help to get over a hump. 

 

It’s hard accepting help. In some ways it’s so much easier to give than to receive — I know, I’ve been there. (As a teenager going to live with a new family that wasn’t my own: they converted their rec room into my bedroom.) But exactly last year when the winds of this pandemic were just whipping up, I was trying to fall asleep one night but I couldn’t relax: the news stories emerging of people in their 30’s dying of this virus made me exclaim across the pillow to Ben: “We don’t have guardians for the kids if we die!” (The next morning I begged Noelia to move in and care for them if we both ever became hospitalized. We don’t really have family here…) But it sure makes you think about your own mortality. And I also thought, if I die right now, how will I feel about my  life? (Not: if I die, how will I be remembered?) No, more like: if I’m on my deathbed, about to be intibated, knowing this could be the end, would I be able to take my last breaths with calmness knowing I lived a good life? And instantly I felt: No. I think my life has been a bit too much about me. So far. 

But back to volunteering: Everyday Bouquets has surprisingly attracted volunteers without me really even having to ask for them! Which is awesome, because it means we’re doing something FUN! (Arranging flowers is FUN! Flower bombing peoples doorsteps is FUN!) So I feel better asking for more volunteers when I can honestly say I’m a volunteer too. 

Besides being fun, arranging flowers is also therapeutic. For me it’s been a natural extension of my gardening, where I get to work with my hands (not hold a phone, not look at a screen), and exercise the right side of my brain, the creative part that loves pairing colours and textures and creating a small thing of beauty to share with others. I’m an artist and flowers are simply my medium, whether on the canvas of my garden or in the sculpture of a vase. I’ve been gardening my way out of postpartum depression for over 2 years now and Everyday Bouquets has been like the phoenix rising from the ashes of that dark journey.

So thank you for your financial support and words of encouragement; I vow to continue being a good steward of your trust. 

 

Jana Young, Founder

Everyday Bouquets