Tiffany Rutkowski during one of her ‘Tiffany Talks’ podcast episodes.
By Dave Warner
Creative Designs by Tiffany in Dolgeville is participating in a ‘Petal it Forward’ event on October 18th. For the last eight years, thousands of floral industry members in all 50 states have organized teams on one day in October to take part in the event, which is a goodwill initiative where participants hand two flowers or bouquets to an unsuspecting stranger, urging them to keep one and share the other with someone else.
It’s a powerful way to illustrate the positive health benefits of giving and receiving flowers. Science has proven that flowers reduce stress and anxiety and make people happy.
Tiffany Rutkowski, owner of the shop, stated, “The first year I was in business, I participated in “Petal it Forward.” You choose two flowers or small bouquets, one for you and one to give away to another person you see to brighten their day. No cost.”
“Over the past couple of years, I have held back on the purchasing for several reasons. While it goes over well (who doesn’t like free things?), it is a big hit on my budget and sometimes can slow buying for the weeks surrounding it,” she said.
Rutkowski said she wants to “bring it back” this year, but with a twist to help offset the cost of doing it, so she’s looking for collaborations and sponsors.
She said, here’s how this works, “we purchase flowers at a discounted rate, wrap them, and attach a tag. If you have a small business card-sized attachment or sticker, we would also happily include them on the bouquets.”
“You get the publicity of sponsoring your flowers, and you have the option to pass the flowers out that you purchase on your own, or we would send them out in our area. It is a unique opportunity at best,” Rutkowski stated.
There are two options. Roses sponsor $60 for 60 Petal it Forward pairs, or a mini bouquet sponsor for $75 for 15 Petal it Forward pairs.
She says that people in the area should look forward to seeing this happen on the 18th of next month.