Carrying armloads of colourful carnations, Angela Frattaroli walked up Yates Street offering the flowers to passersby during a brisk, sunny lunch hour Thursday.
“Would you like a flower for World Kindness Day?” Frattaroli asked a middle-age couple, who shyly shook their heads and sped up. “No strings attached,” she called after them.
Others happily accepted a flower, tagged with the Mark Twain quote “Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
World Kindness Day is part of an international movement that promotes random acts of goodwill by citizens and non-profit agencies.
Frattaroli, with the help of her mother and a friend, spent the day downtown giving 2,000 flowers to strangers to brighten their days.
She wasn’t asking for anything back. She’s not tied to any organization or campaign, and paid for the flowers out of her own pocket.
“I’m not asking anything of anyone; maybe just pay forward any kindness in a small way,” said the 32-year-old government communications worker. “It’s purely giving. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, I’ll give you flowers.”
Frattaroli said the idea came to her a few years back when she felt she needed a lift.
“I’d just gone through a breakup, didn’t get the promotion I wanted and turned 30,” she said. “It got to the point where having a drink with the girls just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I needed to do something uplifting and fun, not self-medicate.”
So Frattaroli brainstormed with a few friends and was inspired by the kindness movement, which she read about online.
Last year, Frattaroli and a friend decided to act on kindness day. They created a kindness banner, put it inside a downtown shop for the public to leave positive messages, then gave it to a seniors’ home. They also handed out flowers on the street, which was a hit.
“People were a little weird about it at first. They’d say, ‘I don’t have any money,’ but once they understood what it was, they were very cool. Some even teared up,” Frattaroli said.
This year, she spent $500 on flowers, took two days off work, stayed up until 1 a.m. Wednesday to tag each of the 2,000 flowers and was on the street by 7 a.m. Thursday to give them out.
A trio of hip young men declined a flower at first, but one doubled back with a grin to take one. Kayla Wilson, 20, was thrilled to accept a flower from Frattaroli.
“You bought these yourself? … That’s so sweet. If I was having a bad day, this would’ve made me cry,” she said.
