The Flower Lady
Donation protected
Many of you know The Flower Lady, Robin Lindsey, who started at the Portsmouth Olde Towne Farmers Market with plants and flowers, then expanded her business to include organic skincare products. She’s been a market mainstay since 2010, and a favorite with more of our customers than we can count.
Last month, Mother Nature delivered a storm that took out a few weeks’ worth of flowers (and income), which The Flower Lady took in stride. This month, Human Nature delivered a whole different kind of blow: Robin’s farm was burgled and vandalized. Thieves broke down the door to her workshop (and the door to the chicken coop!) and stole any items they recognized as having worth. Then they took the time to destroy everything else they could lay their hands on. This included her latest crop of freshly-picked flowers (in buckets of water, awaiting arranging for next morning’s market) and her stores of organic skincare products that so many of us depend upon. The buckets of flowers were overturned, and the shelves of products were dumped onto the wet mass on the floor. Since Robin doesn’t use preservatives in her products, they were ruined. On top of all this, her latest shipment of seeds was also dumped into the mix, ruining the next crop.
Recovering from this horror story requires rebuilding, replanting, and reproducing. Any one of those requirements costs money beyond the reserves of a fledgling business already hit by naturally occurring disasters (but hanging in there). After a bit of friendly persuasion (actually, a lot) from her market manager, Robin agreed to let us launch a “Go-Fund-Me” account, which is what we are doing here. We have a modest goal of $3,500 to cover the stolen and damaged property and get the next plants and products into production.
The Flower Lady is our lady, an always smiling, incredibly hardworking member of our market family. Please support our effort to ensure her—and our market’s—success.
Last month, Mother Nature delivered a storm that took out a few weeks’ worth of flowers (and income), which The Flower Lady took in stride. This month, Human Nature delivered a whole different kind of blow: Robin’s farm was burgled and vandalized. Thieves broke down the door to her workshop (and the door to the chicken coop!) and stole any items they recognized as having worth. Then they took the time to destroy everything else they could lay their hands on. This included her latest crop of freshly-picked flowers (in buckets of water, awaiting arranging for next morning’s market) and her stores of organic skincare products that so many of us depend upon. The buckets of flowers were overturned, and the shelves of products were dumped onto the wet mass on the floor. Since Robin doesn’t use preservatives in her products, they were ruined. On top of all this, her latest shipment of seeds was also dumped into the mix, ruining the next crop.
Recovering from this horror story requires rebuilding, replanting, and reproducing. Any one of those requirements costs money beyond the reserves of a fledgling business already hit by naturally occurring disasters (but hanging in there). After a bit of friendly persuasion (actually, a lot) from her market manager, Robin agreed to let us launch a “Go-Fund-Me” account, which is what we are doing here. We have a modest goal of $3,500 to cover the stolen and damaged property and get the next plants and products into production.
The Flower Lady is our lady, an always smiling, incredibly hardworking member of our market family. Please support our effort to ensure her—and our market’s—success.
Organizer and beneficiary
Paul Danaher
Organizer
Portsmouth, VA
Robin Lindsey
Beneficiary
