{"id":229430,"date":"2026-02-13T10:09:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T20:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=229430"},"modified":"2026-02-17T08:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:02:23","slug":"flower-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/13\/flower-event\/","title":{"rendered":"1 for you, 1 for me: UH<\/abbr> flower event spreads love to those in need"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"person
Toni Drake decided to make several flower arrangements for the Palolo Chinese home and Palolo Hongwanji Temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A rainy Saturday couldn\u2019t stop warm hearts and the aloha spirit as University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa<\/span> students and community members gathered for the annual pre-Valentine\u2019s Day flower arranging event on February 7. Held at Kuykendall Hall, the event offered a creative outlet for the community to connect and give back.<\/p>\n

\"person
Cat Bejarano made two flower arrangements, and one will be gifted to a family that\u2019s working to get back on their feet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Participants followed a “one-for-me, one-for-you” model; one bouquet was kept by the creator, while the second was donated to the Palolo Chinese home and Palolo Hongwanji Temple, which distributed the flowers to people and families in need of a seasonal lift.<\/p>\n

The workshop is a collaborative effort between the nonprofit Family Education Centers of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> (FECH<\/abbr>) and the Home Garden Network, part of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences in the UH<\/abbr> Mānoa<\/span> College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Norman Tansey, president of FECH<\/abbr>, noted that several dedicated community members have attended every year. “It\u2019s something that has really picked up and snowballed, and we\u2019re happy to hold it every year.”<\/p>\n

Resilient mental health, well-being<\/h2>\n

Now in its fifth year, the event was designed to promote mental health awareness by encouraging participants to slow down and surround themselves with the beauty of nature.<\/p>\n

\"people
Jenny Wakumoto and Nicole Yoza attended the event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It’s important just to take some time, surround yourself with good people, and let the colors of the flowers speak to you,” said Tansey. “It’s hard to be in a mindset that isn’t positive when you’re surrounded by colors and working with different textures. It\u2019s all about building community and putting smiles on faces.”<\/p>\n

A learning lab<\/h2>\n

“We have refined the programming using participant feedback, and each year we apply what we learn to improve the event,” said Sothy Eng, associate professor of human development and family science and founder of the Home Garden Network. “With support from our student interns, including Makayla Sharp and several alumni who come back every year to volunteer, the project has even resulted in a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences<\/em> co-authored with students.”<\/p>\n

Eng noted that the program provides real-world training in community engagement. “Students see how a program is developed, implemented and refined, and then learn how to translate that experience into research that can inform extension programming across the United States.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Participants followed a “one-for-me, one-for-you” model; one bouquet was kept by the creator, while the second was donated to people and families in need of a seasonal lift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":229418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[212,1420,1466,9],"class_list":["post-229430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-family-and-consumer-sciences","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/manoa-ctahr-valentines-flowers.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229430"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229513,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229430\/revisions\/229513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}