Ken Lerman, a Pompano Beach businessman, decided that having loving thoughts about other people just wasn’t enough. He needed to find a way to express it in public for everyone to experience.
As if the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t enough to stir fear and division among people, the recent police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the protests that followed was the moment Lerman decided he had to do something.
“I just said to myself: ‘How can one human being do that to another human being?'” he said.
Now Lerman shows up at grocery stores, where he’s guaranteed to find a variety of people going about their daily activities. Along with a number of cohorts in what he calls love actions, he hands out hundreds of roses to random people and tells them, “I love you!”
Always a believer in love
Lerman said he grew up with the belief, reinforced by his parents, that love was the most important thing in life.
“I’ve always wanted to have everybody love each other since I was a little kid,” he said. “My parents marched in the civil rights movement. I grew up as a middle-class Jewish kid. My parents were just very into love and civil rights and that’s what they instilled in me.”
Lerman knew that love should really be expressed through actions, not just words, he said.
“I’m from New York, originally. I started a homeless organization there,” he said. “I even had a homeless person live with me.”
Lerman said he also was inspired by stories and films that talk about love.
“My favorite movie is ‘Pay It Forward’, because I believe in love karma,” he said. “That means that when I do something to show my love for you, then you should show your love to somebody else. Then you just keep spreading out the love.”
Love translates into action
Lerman moved to Florida in 2012. While he said he enjoys running his printing business, he wanted to find a way to highlight loving actions that are perpetrated by local leaders, activists and entertainers.
“In January of 2020, I created a TV show called The Florida Love Show on Facebook,” he said. “It’s all about love and transforming the world with love. It’s on live every Friday at 3 p.m. I have guests come on and they talk about how they spread love in the Florida community, and transform the world with love.”
The show was just the start of what he was about to take on. Since flowers are often an expression of love, something occurred to him while he was working on his show after the George Floyd incident.
“I’m sitting there, and I’ve got six dozen roses I’m about to bring to the set,” he said. “And I said to myself, ‘What do I need roses for?’ All of these African Americans are hurting, and I decided I should do something better with the flowers.
“One day, after I bought the roses at the grocery store and put them in my shopping cart, I just started giving every African American a rose and told each of them that I love them,” he said. “They were so moved that some of them hugged me, some were crying, and they told me they loved me back.”
People told him they need love now more than ever before, he said. He ended up taking a picture of what he was doing and posted it on Facebook. That photo got over 600 likes.
“That inspired me to create Roses for Change,” Lerman said. “I started going to grocery stores by myself and buying up all their roses to give to every African American. Some people who weren’t African American asked, ‘Why aren’t you giving it to me?’ I told them that the Black community are the ones who are hurting right now. I give love to everybody, but I am giving roses to the people who are hurting.”
Collaborators in love
Lerman is no longer showing up at grocery stores by himself. He has recruited volunteers through his Facebook groups who are as enthusiastic about spreading the love. Now he has a cadre of love spreaders who accompany him on his weekly mission to visit stores and offer up a rose and a message to everyone who will receive them. Some of the cities they have visited or plan to visit include Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors, Boca Raton, Coral Springs, Delray Beach and Lake Worth.
One of those collaborators is Leslie Morris, a yoga therapist who lives in Weston.
“I met Ken back in February through a mutual friend,” she said. “I thought what he was doing was amazing, because I do some of this in my own life. All these hearts are part of who I am! I decided I wanted to help him.
“People who know Ken also know that he’s very passionate about spreading love,” Morris said. “We need compassion for ourselves and for others. The highest vibrating energy helps to counter the fear and the anger that’s going on right now, with the state of this world and how people are being treated unjustly.”
She said she sees a need for people right now to be acknowledged and cared about.
“Everybody wants to be heard, and feel like they’re loved,” Morris said. “Giving a rose is just a little gesture to put a smile on somebody’s face and let them know that even somebody who doesn’t know them can show love and kindness.”
Echoing Lerman’s love motto, Morris said it’s important to focus on our commonalities.
“We’re giving out roses to everybody, just because they’re human beings. It’s so simple to just love people. Love is the absence of judgment,” she said.
Visit facebook.com/MyFloridaLove/.
