A rainy Saturday couldn’t stop warm hearts and the aloha spirit as University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa students and community members gathered for the annual pre-Valentine’s Day flower arranging event on February 7. Held at Kuykendall Hall, the event offered a creative outlet for the community to connect and give back.
Participants followed a “one-for-me, one-for-you” model; one bouquet was kept by the creator, while the second was donated to the Palolo Chinese home and Palolo Hongwanji Temple, which distributed the flowers to people and families in need of a seasonal lift.
The workshop is a collaborative effort between the nonprofit Family Education Centers of Hawaiʻi (FECH) and the Home Garden Network, part of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences in the UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience.
Norman Tansey, president of FECH, noted that several dedicated community members have attended every year. “It’s something that has really picked up and snowballed, and we’re happy to hold it every year.”
Resilient mental health, well-being
Now in its fifth year, the event was designed to promote mental health awareness by encouraging participants to slow down and surround themselves with the beauty of nature.
“It’s important just to take some time, surround yourself with good people, and let the colors of the flowers speak to you,” said Tansey. “It’s hard to be in a mindset that isn’t positive when you’re surrounded by colors and working with different textures. It’s all about building community and putting smiles on faces.”
A learning lab
“We have refined the programming using participant feedback, and each year we apply what we learn to improve the event,” said Sothy Eng, associate professor of human development and family science and founder of the Home Garden Network. “With support from our student interns, including Makayla Sharp and several alumni who come back every year to volunteer, the project has even resulted in a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences co-authored with students.”
Eng noted that the program provides real-world training in community engagement. “Students see how a program is developed, implemented and refined, and then learn how to translate that experience into research that can inform extension programming across the United States.”
