Nashville man spreads joy by turning trashed flowers into treasured arrangements

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Joy can be found in the most unlikely places. For one Nashville man, he found it in a dumpster—and he’s on a mission to spread that joy across Middle Tennessee, one flower at a time.

Trevor Phillips was stunned 18 months ago to see beautiful flowers tossed in a dumpster behind a number of Nashville florists.

“I was like, ‘Man, that’s crazy! They are throwing all those away,” said Phillips.”I stopped in, opened it up and it was full…flowers, I mean, just hundreds of good flowers.”

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For one reason or another, the florists don’t want to sell these flowers. But to Phillips, they’re beautiful. It sparked an idea to make flower arrangements and hand them out at health and rehabilitation centers.

“A lot of those places, people don’t have family or a lot of attention,” said Phillips. “Sixty people, how it just made their day. I was just like, ‘Wow.’ And to admit, I was kinda addicted after that. I started collecting flowers.”

Phillips had all these flowers. He just had one challenge—he needed a place to store all of them. That’s where the Nashville Rescue Mission came in, providing a cooler to store the flowers.

“I just told him what we were doing. He was like, ‘yeah, sure,'” said Phillips. “He was like, ‘Yeah, I think we got a cooler you can use.'”

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In that moment, Flower the People started to bloom. Soon, they had a Facebook page and volunteers serving two hours on Saturdays to both create and hand out the arrangements at as many as 15 different centers.

“It’s really cool. Kinda my dream come true. Eighteen months ago I had dreamed of that, and I thought no way.”

Flower the People has grown a lot in 18 months. Phillips has too. In fact, for years he experienced homelessness. Like the flowers he collects, he knows what it’s like to be tossed aside.

“A lot of times, I end up sitting down with somebody and it’s them helping me,” said Phillips.”I find out what’s important in life. And accept that maybe a lot of the things I want that aren’t necessarily so important.”

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Phillips is no longer homeless. He owns his own landscaping business. But, he would love to have more volunteers help on Saturdays with Flower the People. Click here, if you would like to volunteer.

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