Flowers get a “second bloom” thanks to unique nonprofit

ATLANTA, Ga. - Sometimes the most beautiful things blossom from adversity. And if anyone knows blossoms, It’s Kirstin Fabrizio.

"I was lucky enough to grow up on the east end of Long Island, where we have a lot of family farms, and my high school and college job was working on the farm," says Fabrizio. "I would go out into the fields and do the cut flowers and bring them back to the barn and do the arrangements to sell at the farm-stand."

But it wasn’t until years later, when Fabrizio began caring for her ailing mother and eventually moved her into an assisted living facility, that she returned to her roots in a most unexpected way.

"I started to merge the two ideas of helping people in assisted living facilities and bringing a little joy into their lives, plus my love of flowers," she says.

Fabrizio is the founder of ReFlowering, a nonprofit that takes leftover flowers that would otherwise end up in trash and re-purposes them into donated arrangements for hospitals, nursing homes, and other recipients in the community. One of Fabrizio’s top sources for flowers is Atlanta-based Bold Catering & Design, a full-service catering and event design company where the floral team is constantly assembling arrangements for weddings, holiday parties, and corporate events.

"Sometimes the client takes flowers home, and then we bring back whatever doesn't get taken. And we'll take out the longer stems, the heartier flowers, and we'll give them to Kristin," says floral designer Jennifer Burnett.

Fabrizio says she visits Bold Catering & Design almost every week, picking out gently-used flowers from the company’s large cooler. The breathtaking blossoms — once destined for the garbage can — instead get a "second bloom" in places like area hospital rooms.

Says Fabrizio, "My first donation to Piedmont Hospital, they couldn't stop hugging me! They were just so overjoyed to get the flowers and knowing that it's really brightening someone's day, especially some of the patients who really were struggling and maybe not having as many visitors or people sending them flowers there in the hospital."

And it’s a win for Bold Catering & Design, too, by helping the company reduce its overall waste. A perfect partnership, team members say…organically-grown.

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