Trinity students’ floral program for seniors is blooming
Trinity students and teachers work together to create floral arrangements that will then be delivered to nursing homes and seniors in the area.
Arrangements await delivery after students at Trinity High School created them in the floral ag class.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Trinity life skills teacher Bobbi Belleville shows students how to clean up a rose for a floral arrangement during a class in the floral ag room.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Teachers Robin Durila, left, and Bobbi Belleville help Trinity students as they make floral arrangements in the floral design class.
Trinity High School life skills students are helping to brighten senior citizens’ days with floral bouquets.
Every other week, the life skills students deliver as many as 40 flower arrangements to senior citizens at Premier Washington Nursing and Health Center (formerly Washington County Health Center), Thomas Campbell Christian Center, or The Grove.
The life skills students collaborate with students in the vocational-agricultural program’s floral design and horticulture classes to cut and process the flowers, and then assemble the arrangements.
Bobbi Belleville, life skills teacher at Trinity High School, said the project has been mutually beneficial for students and senior citizens.
“My students get to work on their social skills by delivering flowers to people in need of a genuine connection with kids,” said Belleville. “When the seniors ask why they’re getting flowers, my students say, ‘It’s to brighten your day.’ I think it’s great for both the students and the elderly.”
The local community also is involved in the program. William G. Neal Funeral Homes in Washington and Sam’s Club, through the Greater Washington County Food Bank and Feeding America, a hunger relief organization, provide fresh flowers. An anonymous benefactor, affectionately dubbed “the fairy godmother,” supplies vases and other items.
Said vo-ag teacher Robin Durila, “It gives our students a hands-on approach to learning. The budget isn’t going to allow us to buy $100 worth of flowers very often, so this is wonderful.”
On a recent Monday, students in Belleville’s life skills class, alongside vo-ag students, carefully and enthusiastically trimmed roses, lilies and other flowers, arranged them in vases and placed them in a floral refrigerator -obtained through a grant – where the arrangements would remain until delivery day.
Life skills student Cody Lowther enjoys delivering the flowers.
“It makes me feel happy because it helps the older people and it makes their day happy,” said Lowther.
No flowers go to waste.
Flowers with a short lifespan that won’t last in the floral arrangements are sold to staff members, and the money goes into an activity fund that benefits district students and families in need.
“People have been very generous and very good to my students, and I want the students to know it’s important for them to give back, too,” said Belleville. “At the same time, they’re learning life skills, and what greater gift can we give our kids other than to be in the community and learn how to provide for themselves?”