Kind florist spreads laughter & love to nursing home residents

When he was a teenager, Evan Sykes would visit his great-grandmother in her nursing home, and his heart broke for residents with no family to visit them. A few years later, he found a way to lift spirits on Valentine's Day

- Kellie B. Gormly

They just need some joy brought to their lives, a young Evan Sykes thought as he left a local nursing home after visiting his great-grandmother, Pearl Berger. So many of them have no visitors, and they look so sad and lonely. Evan's heart was touched, and he never forgot the residents' faces.

A few years later in 2021, he took over his family's florist business, Reed Family Floral, and he and his team were preparing for Valentine's Day-the busiest day of the year for flower shops. Evan suddenly remembered the nursing home residents who tugged at his heartstrings all those years earlier.

How can we use the beauty of flowers to help them feel loved too? thought Evan, now 25. He and his family, who still help run the Virgie, Kentucky, floral shop brainstormed and decided to start delivering single roses.

"We'll call it 'Adopt a Resident,' so others in the community can get involved too!" the family decided. "We can deliver hundreds of single red roses in plastic vases with a bow to residents of nursing homes and assisted-living centers."

In that moment, their special program was born. For Valentine's Day, individuals and businesses can sponsor flowers at the Reed Family Floral website for $16.99 each, and people with limited means can pay just $5.