Brody’s Flowers and Brody’s Babies
Donation protected
- Our mission is to honor a self started project my son, Brody, did when he was in 8th grade. Brody was initially selling geraniums to raise money for his student exchange to Japan over the summer. During this time he thought about the sad fact that many women in nursing homes would not get flowers on Mother's Day and perhaps not even a visitor. This bothered him so much that he contacted all the individuals who had already purchased plants and asked if they would consider donating their orders to the women in our local nursing home. Every person said yes and some donated more money for his cause. He visited local businesses for donations and went door to door with a friend up until the hour orders had to be turned in. He was able to raise around $900.00 and reach his goal to make Mother's Day special for 75 women in the nursing home...and all of the men too! He personally delivered each one and accepted hugs, pinched cheeks and even some kisses on the cheek.
Sadly we lost Brody due to a motorcycle accident when he was 19. His giving and loving nature didn't end with him and he fulfilled his wish to be an organ, tissue and eye donor. Brody saved 6 lives with organ donation. He improved the lives of over 75 individuals, including his sister, with tissue donations and gave sight to 2 individuals with his gifts of corneas.
In the spring of 2018 I struggled with coming up with a way to honor Brody's memory in April. I happened to get one of those facebook memory reminders which included Brody's efforts so many years ago. I was hoping to get enough donations to again cover the ladies in the nursing homes in our small town. I was blown away with the response and had to continually raise our goal. Our mission is to be able to provide as many women as possible with hand delivered joy through Brody's Flowers. Last year we added Brody’s Babies and what a massive outpouring of support, love and responses to our realistic baby dolls. What we witnessed when handing over a “baby” was practically an instantaneous response of lullabies, rocking, coos of interaction and an over all calm would come over the room/s. We hope to exceed our goal last year and continue to exceed our goals for as many years as we can keep this mission going.
This year our goal is 1,000 potted flowers, which run about $5 each. Our goal for the babies was 100, with the cost of each baby at about $50/each. However, we have requests for several more and I hate to disappoint. To bring this goal to fruition, we need $2,000 yet to reach our total of $10,000. I’m asking for $3,000 to cover any other additional last min requests as well as hold a balance in the Brody’s Flowers account to purchase babies throughout the year, as they go on sale.
This is an extremely important demographic to reach out to. Help us make sure they feel loved, respected and most importantly, remembered this Mother’s Day and onward.
Please help if you’re able. Every little bit helps. 100% of all monies, after fees, goes to the purchase of flowers and babies.
Thank you for your support and please share, share, share!
Gratefully,
Megs, Brody’s Mama Bear
Organizer
Megs Emanuel
Organizer
Beloit, WI
