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‘Lonely’ bouquets around mid Island looking for new homes

70-plus floral arrangements to be placed around mid Island July 11 for lucky finders
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Courtesy of MIFAC The Mid Island Floral Art Club is participating in International Lonely Bouquet Day.

Normally, taking flowers from public spaces is a bit of a faux pas.

However, on Thursday, July 11, people will be encouraged to do just that.

The Mid Island Floral Art Club is participating in International Lonely Bouquet Day. Members of the club will put together more than 70 floral arrangements and leave them in public places for anyone to find and take home.

The flowers will have tags on them that read “please take me home.”

The website for the global event says its goal is “to dedicate one day a year to making strangers happy.”

Deanne Sykes is the president of MIFAC. She’s on board with this motto, 100 per cent.

“Why not? We can share our flowers and make people smile,” said Sykes. “Our club motto is ‘making friends through flowers.’”

The floral arrangements will be placed around Parksville-Qualicum Beach, and some may be found in Bowser, Nanaimo and Port Alberni. They could be on picnic tables, benches, in a camping site, or “even outside the doctor’s office, you never know,” said a release from the club.

The arrangements will be in various types of containers, like cups and mugs, which people are welcome to take with them as well.

Sykes says the group has participated for several years now. They ask flower finders to reach out and let them know where the arrangements ended up.

“[Last year] was amazing… the responses just kept coming in. We were really impressed. People kept track of where they’d visited, gave us a list of the places, took pictures of them on the picnic table. We were really thrilled with our response last year,” said Sykes.

Lonely Bouquet Day generally takes place on June 30, but MIFAC chose to align their event with their monthly meeting instead.

emily.vance@pqbnews.com