A week ago, I kicked off a “roses for Pelosi” effort, seeking to raise money to send 10,000 roses to our newly reminted speaker of the House. When the final tally was made, we had enough to send TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND.
With a herculean team effort, we managed to find a wholesaler to procure that many roses in a week, and a florist to prep them. I then flew to D.C. to be on hand for the delivery.
Of course, 25,000 roses were too many for any congressional office, even Pelosi’s. So we ended up having 8,000 delivered to the Capitol, and the rest we diverted—at the suggestion of the speaker’s office—to Walter Reed Medical Center. I spent a good part of the morning moving crates of roses up to Pelosi’s second-story office (a great workout!), thankful that we didn’t have the full 25,000 to move!
We had a lovely event with Pelosi, surrounded by flowers; then we spent the rest of the afternoon delivering roses to as many congressional offices as possible—spreading real cheer and joy to overworked Hill staff. I can’t tell you how many freshmen offices were grossly understaffed, as harried staff lamented, “I’m one of only three!” They’ve only been up and running for a week! And as we all know, it’s been a crazy week.
Only bummer is that I was only there for a single day, so we couldn’t get to ALL Democratic offices. Next time, and I hope there’s a next time, I’ll plan accordingly.
We have video of the whole event—deliveries both to the Capitol and to Walter Reed—as well as a short interview I conducted with Pelosi. The team is working on getting that all ready for publication, hopefully early next week. I just wanted you all to know that, thanks to herculean effort by both Daily Kos and Pelosi staff, we pulled off this amazing flower event in a single week! Thank you to all who participated for allowing us—as Pelosi said in my interview—to stop and smell the roses, even in these toxic political times.
Oh, and check out the Washington Post’s coverage of the event here!