Blooming happiness
The Flowers for Palo Alto club’s mission continues to bring smiles all around
Flowers for Palo Alto club co-president senior Yash Shetty hands out flowers across campus to students and faculty to ease school stress. “It’s really nice when I get flowers. I get a feeling that people appreciate me and stuff like that, so I think, definitely, that everybody deserves to be given a flower,” co-president Jonas Pao said.
Perhaps you’ve seen students around campus with a fresh carnation in hand. Ever wonder where they come from? The Flowers for Palo Alto Club is behind this blossoming trend.
Inspired by original club president Emily Yao’s determination to spread kindness, seniors Yash Shetty and Jonas Pao joined this club in their junior year. Now co-presidents, Shetty and Pao aim to continue combating academic stressors with more floral gestures.
“There’s just a lot of stress and pressure being felt by a lot of the students here and giving someone a flower can be like a moment of break,” Shetty said.
Though giving away flowers seems like a minor gesture, this club hopes is to instill a tradition of spreading kindness around campus. Students are sometimes given several stems to continue gifting to their peers and teachers.
“It makes me happy to know that people are really connecting with each other in a really positive way when I see teachers with flowers in their hair and stuff like that,” Pao said. “So I think the mission is definitely to make people do random acts of kindness and also to come closer together with positive connections.”
Flowers may not be a typical destressor, but the bright blooms do send an positive underlying message to the community, according to Pao.
“It’s a symbol of beauty and also appreciation,” Pao said.
“They’re pretty universally adored thing,” Shetty said. “Most people like flowers and because of that we can go around school and just like [ask] hey, do you want a flower?”
Moving forward, Pao and Shetty hope to expand their flower-giving initiative to other schools and regions.
“Jonas and I would like to continue the club wherever we end up going to college or wherever we end up in the future,” Shetty said.
As the co-presidents graduate, they are looking for another committed student to continue the club’s mission.
“Continuing the legacy is really important,” Pao said. “We are trying to find another person to pass it on and make sure they’re committed.”
“Everyone deserves to be given a flower,” Pao said.