Twenty-four years ago, a parishioner from St. Joseph’s Parish in Port Moody organized a visit to a long-term-care facility in the community—a visit that was designed to put into action the Catholic Church’s commitment to the value of the lives of the sick and the elderly.
This year Blooms into Rooms: The Easter-Flowers Project blossomed to include five parishes from Maple Ridge to Coquitlam.
In fact, 100 men, women and children from those parishes visited 900 seniors in nine facilities on Holy Saturday, giving them flowering plants donated by Art Knapp’s of Port Coquitlam and greeting cards made by parish children.
“Most importantly,” said founder and organizer Terry O’Neill, “we gave them all the time, care, attention and love that they deserved.”
It was the second consecutive year of significant growth for the flowers project. For most of the past few decades, only parishioners from St. Joseph’s were involved, visiting about 75 residents at one facility. Last year, O’Neill was able to field volunteers from four parishes who visited 500 seniors.
This year’s event flowered under the new “Blooms into Rooms” banner (and Facebook page), and involved volunteers from St. Patrick’s and St. Luke’s parishes in Maple Ridge, St. Clare of Assisi and Our Lady of Fatima in Coquitlam, and St. Joseph’s.
“We’ve had no trouble at all attracting volunteers,” O’Neill said. “That’s because the project is simple, but it’s also a very direct and effective way of putting our beliefs into action. It warms the hearts of seniors, encourages the staff who care for them, enriches the volunteers, and sends what we hope is a strong and important message to society about the value of the lives of the sick and elderly.”
Heather Thompson, who helped lead the St. Clare’s group, said the recreation manager of the Dufferin Care Centre in Coquitlam “had nothing but good things to say about how positive an impact this had on the residents last year, and how eager they were for our return again this year. She also said that it has a tremendous impact on their staff.”
In Maple Ridge, Britt Bright of St. Luke’s echoed those sentiments, pointing to the fact that both residents and staff were delighted with the visits. “Parish students did a great job interacting with the residents, who loved being with youth,” Bright said. “The feelings were mutual, as several of our group had tears of joy, seeing how happy the seniors were for the plants, cards, and, most of all, attention from youth.”
Also in Maple Ridge, Elizabeth Loch, organizer of St. Patrick’s outreach, noted that many of the seniors had no one visiting them, a fact that deeply touched the volunteers. “We now know what a difference it makes to have a friendly visitor stop by and take an interest in them,” Loch said. As for the residents, “They were really touched … even tears of joy.”
Some individual interactions were particularly touching. Margaret Reilly, who led the Fatima teams in their visits to two care centres in Coquitlam, said one of her volunteers went into a resident’s room with flowers only to be told by the woman to take them away because she hadn’t ordered them. Reilly continued, “When told they were a gift for Easter, she seemed astonished and exclaimed, ‘A gift for me!’ and was just thrilled.”
Word of the project’s success is now spreading. This year’s project attracted several community volunteers who are not parish members. Moreover, requests for participation have been received from Surrey, Mission, and Langley.
“We’ve been able to grow with relative ease because of the material and moral support of Wim Vander at Art Knapp’s,” O’Neill pointed out. “But the time is fast approaching when Wim and I will have to put our heads together to devise a way to tap into other avenues of philanthropic support. I look forward to the opportunities.”
