Page 17 - Harnett Life Spring 2021

these loved one’s sunshine has become clouded or nonexistent.
visit could brighten their days. I also saw how hard my mom
and aunts worked to make sure my grandmas knew they
were still a part of our family. With COVID, a large part of
Harnett Life ~ Spring 2021
A telephone call or a look through the window visit is not how
we want them to enjoy their lives. These flower gifts bring a
little bit of the outside world into their small rooms, which is
now their whole world. It brightens up the room for a short
time until the next time.”
The board decided on a mission statement, too: At Project Not
Forgotten, we seek to better the lives of nursing home patients
who have been removed from frequent contact with the outside
world. We seek to improve the quality of their lives as we re-
flect God’s love and care with seasonal deliveries.
They also set a calendar for the deliveries for six times a year:
Valentine’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, late August, Thanks-
giving and Christmas. The flowers, cards and thinking-of-you
gestures have been lovingly received at numerous nursing
homes and assisted care facilities across a five-county radius.
Volunteers deliver to close-by sites based upon request — usu-
ally made by a resident’s family — but they make further away
inquiries happen, too.
“We do not turn anyone down,” Surles said. “If you call me
and say there is a nursing home in Raleigh with 62 patients
and you would like them to receive flowers, we arrange for it
to happen. If it is far away, like that, however, we like to have
a representative from the nursing home come to us to pick up
the flowers.”
Stevens calculates they serve 1500 residents at 25 facilities at
the cost of approximately $2 per vase. That equals $3,000 per
event, she said. In Lillington, deliveries are made to Emerald,
Universal, Greenleaf and Pinecrest homes. In Dunn, it’s the Se-
niors Citizens Village, ARC, Harnett Woods and Johnson Bet-
ter Care. Participating homes in Benson are Liberty Commons
and McLambs’ Home; in Fuquay, Windsor Point, in Angier,
Oak Hill; and Smithfield, Smithfield Manor. Additionally, four
nursing home facilities in Cumberland County, four in Samp-
son County and one in Wake County round out the current list.
“If there’s a home we’re not delivering to, it’s just a matter of
someone calling with the name of the facility and their contact
information. We’ll do the rest,” Stevens said.
Doing the rest starts with preparing the multitude of flower ar-
rangements that must be put together and delivered. On each
event day, it’s game on. Volunteers show up early, stay late,
arrange flowers with finesse and garner winning results every
time. The first arrangement featured mixed flowers; the second,
held in late September, a fall flora with pumpkin decor; Christ-
mas, 1,400 mini potted poinsettias. Thus, in 2021, volunteers
have created special floral gifts for Valentine’s Day and Easter.
Work stations have also varied as organizations ― including
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