ROANOKE, Va. – Colorful bouquets of flowers filled the streets of Roanoke County on Wednesday thanks to George’s Flowers, which has teamed up with TFS Roanoke and MKB realtors for “Petal it Forward.” This is a day when volunteers will hand out 4,000 bouquets of flowers on the streets in Roanoke, Vinton and Salem.
Each person that comes by will receive two free bouquets. The idea is that you get to keep one yourself and then give the second one to someone else to brighten up their day.
“It is just a lot of fun. It is very very colorful. The bouquets are beautiful as you can see...You can give it to a loved one, a family member, someone you admire, someone you want to say thank you to or one of the best things, just a perfect stranger,” said George Clements, the owner of George’s Flowers.
Volunteers from MKB Realtors and TFS Roanoke handed out flowers in Market Square in downtown Roanoke, downtown Vinton, Salem, Grandin Village and a couple other locations.
“I am looking forward to being hands-on, meeting with folks, meeting them where they are at in life, and just being able to maybe sprinkle a little bit of happiness in their day and they can let that happiness ripple in to someone else’s day,” said Kathryn Mahoney.
Volunteers started handing out flowers around noon and will keep handing them out until all the flowers are gone.
Below is footage from 10 News photojournalist Greg Moore that shows how the ‘Petal it Forward’ program brought random acts of kindness to the Roanoke Valley.
Here is a full list of where flowers were handed out:
- City of Salem (in front of the Salem Public Library and along this block of Main Street) - noon to 4 pm
- Grandin Village – 1310 Grandin Avenue (set up in front of Grandin Theatre) - noon to 4 pm
- Roanoke Grocery Market - 3805 Melrose Avenue - noon to 4 pm
- Mill Mountain Star and lower parking lot which gives easy access to Wildflower Garden, Zoo and Discovery Center - noon to 2 pm
- Wiley Drive at footbridge crossing Roanoke River to Reserve Avenue - noon to 4 pm
- MKB’s Office - Route 419 (3801 Electric Road at Chaparral Drive) headquarters - noon to 4 pm
- George’s headquarters - 1953 Franklin Road, SW - noon - 4 pm
- TFS Roanoke, Inc. – 3441 Brandon Avenue – noon - 4 pm