Shea’s design will adorn the birthday card that all members receive in the coming year. The third-grader “just loves to be creative and outgoing,” her mother said.
In the year ahead, members of the Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts Kids Club will celebrate a “hoppy” birthday courtesy of Shea Berridge.
Shea, who is turning 9 and entering third grade, is the winner of this year’s kids club birthday card design contest.
Her design features a bunny wearing a flower tiera and will adorn the electronic card that kids club members receive in the coming year. Her prize is a free flower delivery.
She is the daughter of Shawn and Christi Berridge, who live in Lewis Center with Shea and her older brother.
“She just loves to be creative and outgoing,” Christi said about Shea, who is active in dance, cheer and the Girl Scouts.
The kids club is free for children ages 5 to 12. Parents may register their children at any Connells Maple Lee store or at cmlflowers.com/kidsclub. Kids club benefits also include a membership card, online activities and a quarterly e-mail newsletter.
Children of an earlier time did the monster mash. The Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts Kids Club has an updated take on Halloween: spooky succulents.
The kids club is celebrating the season with its first virtual event, offering free take-home kits that will allow children ages 5 to 12 to decorate a Halloween tin with a succulent plant.
Kits include a tin decorated with a jack-o-lantern, mummy or Dracula; two-inch succulent; cellophane for lining the tin; instruction sheet with QR code linking to a video with assembly and plant-care tips; and a Halloween coloring sheet.
Kits must be reserved at cmlflowers.com/kidsclub while supplies last, limit three per family. In-store pickup of the kits will be available Oct. 19-24.
Connells Maple Lee is encouraging moms and dads to send photos of their child’s completed project to kidsclub@cmlflowers.com for sharing on social media.
The Royer’s Flowers & Gifts Kids Club is looking for its next birthday card design.
Children ages 5 to 12 are eligible to participate in the kids club’s annual design contest. The winner will receive a free bouquet delivery on his or her birthday.
The card is emailed to kids club members on their birthdays.
Entries must be dropped off by July 15 at one of Connells Maple Lee’s three stores: 3014 E. Broad St., Bexley; 2033 Stringtown Road, Grove City; and 8573 Owenfield Drive, Powell.
To download an entry form (and to join the kids club at no cost), visit cmlflowers.com/kidsclub.
Flowers are beautiful all on their own, but it takes talent and dedication to hand-craft an eye-catching, long-lasting floral arrangement and deliver it to a recipient’s home or place of work.
In its newsletter, the Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts Kids Club regularly showcases the tools and tricks of the trade that our florists draw upon to do the very best work for our customers.
We’ve compiled some of them below. We hope you enjoy this behind-the-scenes look into the dynamic nature of a flower shop.
Apron
Superman wears a red cape on his back. Connells Maple Lee designers have something similar, except they wear it on the front.
It’s an apron, and its pockets hold all the tools they need to be floral super heroes: a knife to cut flowers; scissors to cut thicker stems or ribbon; calculator to add flower prices; pen/pencil to take notes from a customer; highlighter to mark special delivery times and other can’t-miss information; permanent marker to identify the contents of boxes before they are packed away; even a mini-screwdriver in case something needs tightening.
Aprons are embroidered with the Connells Maple Lee logo and have a place for a name tag so customers can identify the designer and how long he or she has been with the company.
Tape Grid
The tape at the top of these vases looks like a game of tic-tac-toe, doesn’t it? It’s a tape grid, and it helps us space flower stems evenly. It also provides support to the stems so they stand tall and look their best.
Tape
We use three types of tape depending on the color of the container we are using: clear tape for glass, white tape for white containers, and green tape for baskets and other dark non-glass containers.
The reason for the different colors is that we want our customers to focus on their beautiful flowers and not the tape.
Floral Foam
Those green blocks in the photo are called floral foam. The foam holds cut flower stems in place to make arrangements look pretty. It also holds water so the flowers last as long as possible.
Scissors
If you use scissors for craft projects at school or home, you might have a future working in a flower shop! We use several different types of scissors in our stores. Some are just for cutting flowers, some are made to cut thicker stems such as evergreens or lemon leaf, and others are just for cutting ribbon. We never use ribbon scissors on flowers because the blades would get dull and wouldn’t cut the fabric straight.
No matter what you do with scissors, it’s always important to use them safely.
Uniforms
If you play soccer or baseball or another sport for a team, then you probably wear a uniform. Maybe it includes a shirt with your team’s name on front and your number on the back.
Connells Maple Lee employees are part of a team, too. They might not be kicking or throwing balls, but they are constantly in motion. They practice how to make beautiful arrangements so they are ready for their big games, such as Valentine’s Day or Christmas.
They wear uniforms, too. They wear the Connells Maple Lee logo on their shirts because it helps to make each employee feel and work like part of a unified team. It also makes it easy for customers to know who they can ask for help.
Plastic Wrap
When we sell flowers, we put them in pretty plastic wrap. It’s kind of like when you wear a coat or sweater: the wrap helps keep the flowers warm and protects them from the wind when they go outside. The wrap also makes the flowers look extra special, like a gift.
Delivery Vans/Drivers
Our delivery vans and the men and women who drive them are crucial to the success of our business.
Once one of our designers creates a gorgeous flower arrangement, it’s up to our drivers to deliver them safely and on time. Of course, the flowers have to look as good as they did when they left the store, which can be a big challenge when it’s really hot or cold or stormy.
Our drivers might be the only Connells Maple Lee employee whom customers see if they ordered over the phone or online. So we have to hire people who are safe drivers but also happy and friendly and keep their uniforms and vans clean because they represent our company.
Drivers have a lot of responsibility, but they also have the good fortune to deliver presents of flowers to people.
Participants will make this arrangement featuring daisy poms.
For the first time since the pandemic began, Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts will host a free kids club event in all stores at 2 p.m. March 11.
Children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to make a St. Patrick’s Day arrangement with white and yellow daisy pom pons, leatherleaf fern, baby’s breath and a glitter shamrock stick-in.
Registration is required by contacting your nearest store: 3014 E. Broad St., Bexley, 614-237-8653; 2033 Stringtown Road, Grove City, 614-539-4000; and 8573 Owenfield Drive, Powell, 740-548-4082.
Last year’s winning entry
Just in time for summer vacation, Connells Maple Lee Flowers & Gifts has a challenge for children ages 5 to 12.
The Connells Maple Lee Kids Club is looking for its next birthday card design, one that all kids club members will receive in the year ahead.
As a reward, the designer of the winning entry will receive a free bouquet delivery on his or her birthday.
To enter the contest, download an entry form here or pick up one at your nearest Connells Maple Lee store: 3014 E. Broad St., Bexley; 2033 Stringtown Road, Grove City; and 8573 Owenfield Drive, Powell.
Entries must be dropped off at a Connells Maple Lee store by July 15.
Good luck to everyone!
The winning design in 2020
Just in time for summer vacation, the Connells Maple Lee Kids Club has a challenge for children ages 5 to 12.
We’re looking for our next birthday card design, one that all kids club members will receive in the year ahead.
As a reward, the designer of the winning entry will receive a free bouquet delivery on his or her birthday.
To enter the contest, which begins June 14, pick up an entry form at our stores in Bexley, Grove City or Powell or download one here.
Entries must be dropped off at one of our stores by July 15.
Good luck to everyone. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Maya Ibrahim returned home one night this month bearing an abstract painting on canvas that she had created at a friend’s house.
“We’re waiting for that to dry, and we’ll hang it up,” said her mother, Deanna.
It’s not Maya’s only work of distinction this summer, however.
Maya, a fifth-grader at Riverside Elementary School in Dublin, is the winner of this year’s Connells Maple Lee birthday card contest.
Her design, featuring presents, stars, party hats and a hand-lettered “Happy Birthday!,” will adorn the electronic card that kids club members receive on their birthdays in the coming year. Her prize is a free flower delivery on her next birthday.
The kids club is free to ages 5 to 12. With parental permission, children may register for the kids club at any Connells Maple Lee store or online at cmlflowers.com/kidsclub. Membership benefits include a membership card, website activities, an e-mail newsletter, contests and in-store events.
They say that it’s better to give than to receive.
But you could do both if you win this year’s Connells Maple Lee Kids Club birthday card design contest.
The winning design will adorn the email birthday card that every kids club member receives on his or her special day. The winning artist will receive a free flower delivery on his or her birthday.
The contest is open to kids club members, ages 5 to 12. If you aren’t a kids club member yet, you can register for free at cmlflowers.com/kidsclub.
To enter the contest, simply download the entry form here, create your design and drop it off at your nearest Connells Maple Lee store: 3014 E. Broad St., Bexley; 2033 Stringtown Road, Grove City; and 8573 Owenfield Drive, Powell.
The winner will be chosen in late July.
Good luck to everyone!
The Connells Maple Lee Kids Club has offered coloring pages since its earliest days.
But we’ve never had one quite as poignant as the new one you see above. We created it in response to the fear and anxiety that children and even a lot of adults are experiencing in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
This new design shows a strong, vibrant iris rising out of a crack in a sidewalk and the powerful words of Corita Kent (1918-1986), an artist, educator and advocate for social justice.
Those words come from a longer quote: “Love the moment,” Kent said. “Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each is to succeed.”
For many of us, these are dark moments because of the harm the pandemic has done to people’s health and to the economy. We are fearful for the safety and well-being of ourselves, of our family and friends, of our fellow human beings.
In another quote, Kent noted that there’s a “huge danger” in pretending that awful things don’t happen.
“But you need enough hope to keep going. Flowers grow out of darkness.”
The blue iris, for instance, is sometimes described as symbolizing “faith and hope.” And those are two qualities that will serve us well in the days, weeks and months to come as each of us plays a part in the fight against the pandemic.
For kids club members and their parents alike, we hope you’ll download our “Flowers Grow Out of Dark Moments” coloring page, make it completely your own by coloring it, and give it a place of prominence in your home: refrigerator, window, bedroom wall.
We’d love to see what you come up with and share pictures of your work on our social media pages. Photos can be emailed to marketing@royers.com.
As Corita Kent said, we need hope. Perhaps this simple coloring page, after you’ve brought it to life in your unique way, can be a beacon of hope to you and your family.
Dark moments don’t last. Hope endures.
