One random act of kindness in Knoxville kickstarted a nationwide nonprofit and touched thousands of lives.

When Larsen Jay was involved in an accident that nearly took his life, he found himself spending a lot of time in the hospital. His family and friends flooded his hospital room with flowers, balloons and words of encouragement. He credits his successful recovery to all of the support he received during his treatment.

During his stay at the hospital, he noticed a population that had gone unnoticed: the patients without visitors. He saw the rooms that were missing flowers, well-wishing cards, balloons, visitors and the support that encouraged his own recovery. He made a bouquet out of the flowers in his room and delivered them to a patient recovering in the hospital. This was the beginning of Random Acts of Flowers.

Random Acts of Flowers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that serves patients in hospitals that have been identified as being in need of support. Volunteers at Random Acts of Flowers make and deliver bouquets to the less-visited patients to support their emotional and physical recoveries.

Random Acts of Flowers originated in the UT Medical Center, and has since grown to four locations. The organization’s website reflects that its volunteers have served 98,016 local patients and logged 57,138 local service hours. Random Acts of Flowers receives monetary donations as well as donated flowers and vases.

Random Acts of Flowers partners with florists, funeral homes and grocery stores to receive donations of flowers. They also accept donations from birthday parties, weddings and any other event that has leftover flowers. A team of volunteers pick through the donated flowers and make entirely new arrangements for local patients to enjoy.

Joseph Paschall, sophomore in history and political science, has worked at a local hospital as a CNA for two years. He has noticed lots of lonely patients at the hospital and has personally seen how patients did better in recovery when they had encouragement.

“Even visitors with minor afflictions seemed to benefit a lot from having constant visitors and support,” Paschall said regarding his experiences.

Paschall also worked at a nursing home for almost two years where he saw the same trend: patients who had visitors seemed to be happier and respond better to treatments.

“I think that it’s great that volunteers are serving residents in this way, because it can really turn a situation around,” Paschall said.

For Amber Evans, junior in neuroscience, the mission of Random Acts of Flowers hits a little closer to home. When she was in high school, she was involved in a car accident that required her to go to the hospital.

“All of my visitors showed up immediately because the situation was so extreme and everyone was worried about me,” Evans said about the aftermath of the accident.

When she was recovering, she found herself surrounded by family and friends who supported her through every step of her quick recovery.

“All of them being there made me feel so much better. So much happened and I can’t imagine going through it alone,” Evans said about the support she received.

When Larsen Jay found a need in the community, he addressed it with a solution that has spread to multiple locations and benefited 379,748 patients nationwide. Random Acts of Flowers can be supported through monetary donations, donations of flowers and vases and volunteer time.

More information about volunteering for Random Acts of Flowers can be found at https://knoxville.randomactsofflowers.org/volunteer/.