Clayton Valley garden club honors seniors, health-care workers for Valentine’s Day

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY—The Clayton Valley Garden Club’s Blossoms for Barbara event is celebrating its 10th year of delivering decoratively wrapped flowering plants as Valentine tokens.

The gifts typically go to patients in hospice, recipients of Meals on Wheels, battered women’s shelters, hospitalized veterans and those in the care of assisted living and convalescence facilities.

The club created Blossoms for Barbara in 2011 in honor of the memory of Barbara Manss, mother of club member and event chair Linda Manss Karp. Blossoms for Barbara handed out 250 decoratively wrapped flowering plants its first year. The event has flourished, and they have now delivered more than 10,750 flowering plants as Valentine gestures.

Health care heroes

This year’s Blossoms for Barbara event felt even more necessary because the elderly members of our community needed to know that they are remembered and appreciated. The committee also added 560 health-care heroes in the COVID units from Walnut Creek and Concord John Muir campuses and the county Health Department’s COVID testing site on Oak Grove Boulevard.

“The staff were so happy. And very grateful to receive the plants,” the John Muir health team said in an email. “Thank you for honoring our health-care Heros and Sheros.”

Due to the pandemic, the group made modifications and added protocols to ensure safety of garden club members and the Blossoms for Barbara recipients.

Karp said she is in awe of all the people the Blossoms for Barbara event has touched.

“Doing Blossoms for Barbara is a work of love. I am so grateful to be able to give those in need a little joy,” she said. “This event makes me miss by mother; however, I know she would be proud of how I honor her.”

Visit the Clayton Valley Garden Club website for more information about them.