BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WNKY) \u2014 A local group is handing out free flowers and handwritten motivational notes around downtown Bowling Green, hoping a small gesture can encourage someone who may be having a difficult day.<\/p>\n
Flowers For Mental Health Awareness was started by Dylan Carder, who had already been sharing motivational messages through social media posts, shirts and necklaces. One night, he began thinking about another way to reach people.<\/p>\n
A flower and a message to keep<\/p>\n
Carder had seen people give flowers to strangers and others hand out encouraging notes. He decided to put the two ideas together.<\/p>\n
The group now offers strangers a real flower along with a handwritten message.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe notes were for them to be able to hold on to, you know, because a flower is going to die eventually,\u201d Carder said. \u201cSo that note, that\u2019s something they can keep with them forever and, you know, reread it anytime they need some motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n
When members approach someone, they explain who they are and ask whether the person would like a flower or note. Then they move on.<\/p>\n
They do not stay to watch for a reaction, but some people have found them later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a couple people reach out to us on Facebook and say, hey, we received one of your notes,\u201d Carder said. \u201cI really appreciate it. You know, they were going through a dark time in their life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others have recognized Carder in person and thanked him again.<\/p>\n
Why the mission matters to him<\/p>\n
The work also carries personal meaning for Carder.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout six years ago, I lost my closest buddy to suicide,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it took me a while to kind of piece myself back together to the point where I can, you know, feel confident in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
That loss left him with a question he still thinks about: what his friend may have been going through.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t ever know. You never understand what they\u2019re going through,\u201d Carder said.<\/p>\n
Hoping kindness catches on<\/p>\n
Four people are currently involved with the group, and most of the outreach has been done through pop-up outings.<\/p>\n
Carder hopes more people eventually take part, but he also wants the idea to spread beyond the group itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe a random stranger that saw what we did will say, hey, I want to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WNKY) \u2014 A local group is handing out free flowers and handwritten motivational notes around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[189845,317449,49,48,317450,317451,317452,317453,317454,317455,84,393,20414,43768,43772,394,317456],"class_list":["post-922304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-acts-of-kindness","tag-bowling-green-kentucky","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-community-outreach","tag-downtown-bowling-green","tag-dylan-carder","tag-flowers-for-mental-health-awareness","tag-fountain-square","tag-free-flowers","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-awareness","tag-mental-health-conversations","tag-mental-health-support","tag-mentalhealth","tag-motivational-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}