Flowers-Oh My! (in a Texas drawl)
What follows here is an email in its entirety from one Sally Reed of Cypress Mills, TX. Sally is a “volunteer” fixture within the Lance Armstrong Foundation and can always be found on the Challenge’s finish lines handing out roses to survivors. Last week Sally was in Philadelphia for 07’s first LanceArmstrongChallenge and awaiting our large shipment of yellow roses fresh in from Quito, Ecuador via Miami. A mechanical failure on a FedEx jet saw the roses in Virginia and eventually in New Jersey. Every place but Phily! A very hard days work from Flowerbud and FedEx finally saw the roses offloaded from the failed aircraft and privately couriered to Phily in the middle of the night where Sally was waiting to prepare thousands of roses.
I might add this is a delight to publish in light of the prior posting and the miserable soul that prompted it. I really do like this job!!
Dearest of Dear people, Mark Hayes, Marcy and Andrea of Flowerbud.com, and now our new precious
Marcy of Fed Ex…and everyone in the continuum that put their hearts and
souls into this “Happening”:I don’t even have the words to tell all of you the impact of what your
concerted efforts brought about but I will tell you some stories:First: the event sponsors called to tell me Flowerbud.com sent the most
beautiful roses they had ever seen for any event any where any time.
Flowerbud.com has always made all of the Lance Armstrong events better than
the best that could ever be expected and I am so proud that all of you are
on my team.Second: All of you guys at Flowerbud prove again and again that no matter
what the circumstances, you will perform for every person and attend to
every detail that is needed.
Thirdly: The truly unique part of Flowerbud is that Mark continues to keep
hope for everyone in their battle and strives to do the best for each event
he holds dear to his heart.
I’m sure his stress level was accelerated when he thought the roses would
not get to me in time..thank you Marcy, Marcy and Andrea for getting his
blood pressure back to normal 
I was standing at the finish line as the 5k walkers/runners came in and my
attention turned to a woman who was in apparent distress. She was crying
and putting her face in her hands. I went to her and asked if she was ok.
She told me HER story:
Apparently, many parents came to the Philadelphia Challenge in “honor” or in
“memory” of their children.
They all had met in the halls of Sloan- Kettering as their kids were going
through different treatments for cancer; the least being chemotherapy. New
clinical trials/regular chemo/etc. Anything to save their child.
They had all become friends because of their terrible circumstances but had
become best friends through adversity.
This woman had walked the 5k in honor of her daughter who had won. She was
waiting for a gentleman who was riding in memory of his son who had lost his
battle at 19 years of age.
Leukemia. Sudden onset and his son passed away within three months of
diagnosis.
But the father was here. Riding in his son’s memory, the son he just lost
two months ago.
None of these parents had a “in memory of”, “in honor of” or “Survivor”
badge on. They wanted to quietly pay tribute to the gentle souls of each
child.
I just happened to ask the right question at the right moment.
SO….I handed both parents a rose to commemorate each child and that is
when we all fell apart.
They starting sobbing and thanking me with hugs and tears which turned into
the most emotional moment of my weekend.
The Roses. Each rose honors every person affected by this disease and every
individual’s purpose and commitment to eradicate it from our children’s
lives.
I guess what I am trying to say is that without your dedicated work to get
the roses where they are supposed to be, it would be like any other finish
line. Cross the line in a race.
However, with all of your help, the LiveStrongChallenge turned into one of
the most amazing and healing and purpose filled reasons for ‘keep on keeping
on’, that I have ever witnessed.
Now, people participate knowing that doing the best you can do is all you
can do and the end result of participating is getting a rose at the finish
which has become a phenomenal accolade of hope.
Five minutes of hope is more precious than five hours or five days or five
months of treatment. One rose makes us all understand we have the strength
to fight.
That one rose makes us sure of tomorrow, whether it comes or not, it makes
us want to fight harder, to make sure tomorrow will still be there….
Thank you all.
Profoundly, from my heart,
Thank You. Thank you.
It all came together, on time.
Sally
August 30th, 2007 at 7:22 am
I participated in the LiveStrong Challenge in Philadelphia on August 25th. As a 25 year cancer survivor I received a yellow rose at the end of my 44.3 mile bike ride. Not wanting to lose the rose I put it in a water bottle and set it on the bumper of our SUV and went off to get food and enjoy the after party. When my husband and I returned we realized that the bottle had blown over and someone had picked it up and refilled the water. Four days later the rose is on our mantel as gorgeous as it was when I got it.
This morning I came to the site to order flowers for a friend and found this posting from Sally. As a recipient, I very much appreciate and value the symbolism of the rose. I also think of all the pictures of people with their Rose at the end of the ride, and of course the importance of the “Ride for the Roses”. Thank you to Mark Hayes, Marcy and Andrea of Flowerbud.com, and Marcy of FedEx for making sure that this important part of the event went off smoothly…at least from the participants’ perspective
The event wouldn’t be the same without you.
Thank you!