Tewksbury Volunteer Flower Delivery Brightens Days With Beautiful Blooms

TEWKSBURY (CBS) -- Once there was flower power. Now, with the Power of Flowers Project, dozens of volunteers take arrangements that would otherwise be thrown away and create something new and beautiful.

The bouquets they make brighten the lives of hundreds of people every week, and it all starts in a workshop in Tewksbury.

As visitors enter the workshop, they can't help but smell the delightful scent of fresh flowers at the project's headquarters on the grounds of Tewksbury Hospital.

"Power of Flowers takes recycled flowers and brings hope and happiness to those living in care communities, veterans homes, meals on wheels," Executive Director Michelle Silveira said.

Six days a week, more than 100 volunteers use flowers from weddings, funerals and other special events, and with skill and care, craft them into bouquets. They create about 400 bouquets each week filled with rainbow bursts of color.

"This year we celebrated, in 2019, 100,000 bouquets delivered to the community in 10 years. So that's pretty amazing," Silveira said.

Each week they deliver the bouquets to places like Brightview Concord River assisted living in Billerica.

"I think they're just wonderful. It's my favorite thing every month," Mary Dapaan, a resident, said.

"It just makes me happy because it's flowers, and it's blossoms, and I just love the people that give them to us," Louise Altobelli added.

Delivering that joy is why people volunteer. "It's all about making them have a good feeling for the day, and a smile," 8-year volunteer Barbara Martin said.

Jane Rizzo has been helping for about five years. "Some of them will start smelling the flowers and memories come back, and memories of their gardens, and they'll tell you about them. So it's just a wonderful way to give back to people," she said.