April showers bring May flowers

Nursing home residents, staff receive May Day gifts

One of the many May Day traditions around the world is to give an arrangement of spring flowers to someone as a way of showing kindness and welcoming the warmer season.

Thanks to the efforts of Jessie Caraway, Sarah Murphy, Bryn Cotter, local parents, local children and a handful of local businesses — every resident of the three Silver Valley nursing homes received a fitting May Day gift this morning in the form of flowers.

On top of that, every staff member of Good Samaritan in Silverton, Mountain Valley of Cascadia in Kellogg and Pacifica in Pinehurst received thank-you cards with accompanying coffee cards to acknowledge their hard work during these trying times.

As with many heartwarming stories, this idea to bring some cheer to those most affected by the recent pandemic started small and grew as it gained more and more community support.

Event organizer Jessie Caraway explained that it all started on April 25 when she asked her friend Sarah Murphy, owner and operator of SOL & SERRE flower shop in Wallace, if she could help out with an idea she had for May Day.

“I was just trying to think of something that I could do for the residents at Good Samaritan in Silverton and I threw this idea at Sarah,” she said.

She initially inquired about cost and if the task was even possible, to which the always ambitious Murphy replied over text, “Heck yeah! You’re so sweet! I love your heart, let’s do it!”

Once the wheels were in motion, the plan evolved rapidly.

Murphy kicked things up further by suggesting that they recognize the staff of the facilities with handmade cards from local kids and they should include all three Silver Valley nursing homes.

Caraway created a Facebook fundraiser that night with a goal amount of $550 to help cover the costs of such an endeavor and she was blown away by how much support it received in such a short amount of time.

“We got that in a couple hours and people just kept donating and donating, so we raised the goal so we could get flowers for the residents of all the Silver Valley nursing homes.”

Money continued to come in even after Facebook told donors that the goal was met.

On April 30, more than $2,000 had been collected through Facebook and cash donations.

As for the cards, Murphy reached out to Bryn Cotter, a teacher at Wallace Jr./Sr. High School, to help recruit some kids to the cause. After speaking with more than a hundred Silver Valley parents, roughly 50 kids contributed to making the handwritten cards.

With the flowers and cards paid for, some of the remaining donations were used to get the staff an extra little token of appreciation.

“We went to four different businesses and bought coffee cards there, so it’s just another way for us to support local business,” Caraway said. “We’re supporting Sarah’s shop, we’re supporting the coffee shops, we’re giving back to the community.”

With 134 colorful flower arrangements and more than 160 thank-you cards (each with an accompanying coffee card), Caraway and Murphy visited each nursing home Friday morning and dropped off the goodies — all the while following proper social distancing precautions to protect those most at risk.

“It makes me buzz with excitement,” Murphy said the night before the delivery. “I’m so excited for these people to get flowers. Every time I look at the total number of flowers and the number of people participating with the cards, my heart just gets so happy!”