A new endeavor in Helper aims to bring brightness and happiness to local residents through the power of flowers. The Helper Blooming Project has launched, working to provide residents throughout the city with flowers to brighten their yards and their days.
The project has been a collaboration between Helper residents, as well as local business and volunteers, who saw the need for beautification throughout the city, which was spurred by questions surrounding flower placement on Helper’s Main Street.
As members of the community expressed their passion for beautification and the need for it to be available to all residents, an idea was born. “This all started with the (Facebook) group I started called ‘Helper’s Flower Power,'” said Melissa Rogers. “This page is to showcase everyone’s personal flowers that they work so hard on all year long, yet many people can’t see them in their in their yards. Flowers are such a beautiful thing to stay hidden behind gates and fences and it’s a way to let the town see your beauty you’ve created.”
As the page gained traction, Anthony Cilli, a teacher at Carbon High, encouraged all residents to place flowers in their own yards, if possible, to brighten the city. “But it was mentioned that not all of Helper’s residents have the means to do that,” Rogers said. “From there, Sharon Miller, who owns Aunt Sharon’s Daycare in Helper, started putting it together and called it the Helper Blooming Project.”
The Helper Blooming Project was launched with a goal to provide flowers pots to those in the community who might not normally purchase them. This included elderly, disabled and financially-hindered residents, among others. “But then we decided maybe just go door to door and see who would like one,” Rogers said. “They will be delivered this Saturday.”
Rogers explained that businesses and members of the community have stepped up in support of the project. Flower donations have been gathered from Sutherlands and BK Gardens while Liberty Gardens of Utah also developed a special blend of soil for the pots and donated it. Cindi Curry of Balance Rock Eatery, long known for her beautification efforts in Helper, donated $100 to the efforts. Miller then spent $160 of her own money on flower pots in which to plant the flowers.
“Our community always comes together with results which are always better than the starting point,” said Helper City Mayor Lenise Peterman. “I continue to be proud to serve and always work towards results which encompass varying points of view meeting the overall objective of creating a beautiful, sustainable community.”
Mayor Peterman also addressed the ongoing beautification of Helper’s Main Street and the confusion that sometimes surrounds what can and can’t be done by business owners. “I love the passion our community has for city beautification. That same passion is what led the way for the design of Main Street and the resulting traffic calmers, benches and large-scale planters,” Peterman said. “The city has supported this design and continues to replant pots and planters yearly from grant funds to enhance our historic Main Street. One step the city neglected to address was how businesses may engage the design and enhance it.”
Peterman said that to that end, a positive result is the development of a city policy for how businesses can improve on the existing concept and grow the beautification of Helper’s historic Main Street. “Another positive has been the grass roots efforts to beautify the city with donations of flowers and planters to those in our community who perhaps are doing without due to the current circumstances resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Peterman said.
Volunteers have been gathering throughout the week to plant the donated flowers in pots to prepare them for delivery this Saturday.
“Flowers have such a wonderful impact on the soul,” Rogers said. “The bright colors, the smells, the shapes all impact the heart of humans. It is a small way to have a large impact on our community’s overall mental health and well being. It also reminds us that we can still work together from a distance as a community and make a difference in our small town even during a pandemic. If even it’s a smile on one stranger’s face, then we know we’ve done our job.”
For more on the Helper Blooming Project and beautification with flowers throughout the city, visit the Helper’s Flower Power Facebook page.
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- Photos courtesy of Melissa Montoya Rogers.
