A long line of patients, visitors and hospital staff waited patiently in the lobby of Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital on a weekday morning in late August. Those at the front of the line stood shoulder to shoulder, hunched over a long table covered with cuttings and blooms. They shared ideas and clippers as they created colorful floral arrangements at the Flower Cart, a pop-up community service project organized by the Junior Ladies Garden Club (JLGC) of Athens.
One of those in line was Linda Thomas, a patient care tech at the hospital. She said she was having a tough day, and talked her colleague into leaving the cardiology floor for a trip downstairs to see the flowers. “I thought this was so sweet because when I first saw it, I thought they were selling flowers, but they’re giving them away,” Thomas said. “This was a nice gesture since we’re always dealing with a lot on the floor.”
Garden club members working the Flower Cart poured water into vases and Mason jars, offered design tips and listened to the stories of those they served. Among the volunteers was Meghan Garrard, who first conceived the Flower Cart idea after encountering a similar presentation at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta-Scottish Rite Hospital in the summer of 2022. “The flowers provided a bright spot during a difficult time,” she said.
Garrard found joy in the act of arranging and sharing flowers in a health-care setting, and she wanted others to experience the same healing effects she had. So she pitched the idea to then-club president Lucy Gillis, who embraced it. “I really think it just gets at the heart of, you know, the beauty of flowers is universal,” Gillis said.
After months of planning, a handful of JLGC members organized the club’s first Flower Cart right after Valentine’s Day 2025, knowing florists would have surplus flowers to donate. The garden club’s civic improvement committee co-chairs Cameron Garrard and April Allen both said they were hooked after that first Flower Cart.
“I spent a lot of time in hospitals growing up, and I know how dreary that environment can be,” Cameron Garrard said. “If I can bring somebody some joy in that moment, then I should.”
Since then, Garrard and Allen have organized two more flower carts at Piedmont and one at Presbyterian Village assisted living community. They’ve also set up the Cart in two members’ homes so that the club could arrange flowers and deliver them across the community. “Everyone involved gets something out of it,” Allen said.
To make each cart a success, the co-chairs reach out to local flower vendors and club members for donations. They ask members to recycle their vases and jars. They coordinate with volunteers to transport the tables, waterproof tablecloths, pitchers, vases, signage, and buckets of flowers and cuttings.
Trader Joe’s, Blossoms Wholesale, Brett Glenn Floral Design, Floral Endeavors, Flowers Inc., 3 Porch Farm, UGA’s Latin American Ethnobotanical Garden, Perryander Studio and Kroger have all donated. While the logistics aren’t easy, the donors make the Flower Cart possible, especially during dormant gardening seasons.
Steven Dasher, the executive director of the Piedmont Athens Regional Foundation, said that based on the sheer amount of flowers and the number of people served at the most recent Flower Cart, the Junior Ladies “have it down to a science.”
Margie Spalding, a member of the club since 1972, stayed busy sweeping up the mess beneath the tables at the most recent Flower Cart. She also enjoyed teaching men how to arrange flowers. “We’ve planted trees and built gardens, but as far as immediate satisfaction, this is so easy; it’s so positive,” Spalding said.
The cart wraps up whenever the flowers run out. For Cameron Garrard, that’s the hardest part. She recalled meeting a doctor at the end of the line who didn’t have enough flowers. She told him to hang tight while she ran into the hospital courtyard where she cut enough fresh flowers to help him finish his bouquet.
Regarding the impact of this service project, Dasher said, “Sometimes the hospital can be ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ so the 3,000 people who come to work here every day really appreciate it when members of the community come inside the building to express their appreciation.”
The next Flower Cart will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 11 a.m. at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital.
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