Clover Living always looks for new ways to engage their older adult residents and increase their community involvement. So when ActivateYYC was announced, Clover Living decided to organize a DIY flower shop event for seniors. The original idea was to have the flowershop outside – which would have required a permit – but a change of date and colder weather moved the event indoors. During setup, one senior painted on all the brown paper, which was used to wrap the 300 bouquets that were created – 50% of those being made by the seniors themselves. In total, around 100 people attended this unique flower-making shop. Seniors in attendance gave each other bouquets and advice on how to care for them, talked to neighbours about their favourite flowers and even debated about the best way to arrange the flowers. All in all, the attendees were very happy and excited to receive fresh flowers.

This ActivateYYC project saw a great turnout and engaged many Chinatown residents, and was achieved by using the $750.00 received from ActivateYYC plus $30.00 of personal funds for paint and tools. A local flower shop was also kind enough to donate additional flowers.

The creators of the project had this to say about the success of the ActivateYYC project: “I was surprised but just how great of an impact flowers can have on someone’s day! Many made remarks about how they only got flowers if their husbands did something wrong. People were excited and to make their own bouquets and give them to friends as well. I had no idea how popular this event would be! I was also very excited to see the number of people willing to volunteer with seniors despite the language barrier. Art is a language anybody can communicate in!”