LYCOMING COUNTY, Pa. — A bouquet of flowers with a card reading, "You are loved," sits on a bench outside of The Petal Parcel flower shop in Old Lycoming Township. The bouquet is for the flower shop's 'Support a Stem' project.
"I thought you know we could all use some uplifting this time of year, just I don't know people are—people love flowers and love receiving flowers, everybody does, I've delivered to men, females, everybody, kids, they love flowers so just the gesture of it," said Heidi Lane, Owner of The Petal Parcel.
Shop owner Heidi Lane hopes the Support a Stem project will help bring the community together.
"Use my business as a platform to do so, and I just started off asking people for $2 to go towards a $15 bouquet, and then for every $15 bouquet we get, we would give one away to a stranger as a random act of kindness cause you really don't know who needs it," said Lane.
Every bouquet comes with an arrangement of flowers and a card with a quote or saying on it. Lane wanted to do the project during the month of May because it's Mental Health Awareness Month.
"Over 125 to 130 people who supported a stem, and it was just crazy everybody, even if they couldn't give money, they could tell me what they like written on these cards, so that was really fun too, just so many different ways that you can contribute to something like this," said Lane.
Lane shares what Mental Health Awareness Month means to her, "I have struggled, so it means a lot to me to just show people that they're seen. It can be something so silly that can save a life, and you don't even realize it."
Lane plans to hand out the flowers to random strangers on Friday.