by Connie Oswald Stofko
You can express what you’re grateful for and help to create a colorful Gratitude Garden with flags at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens.
For a donation of $2, visitors can get a small, colorful flag and inscribe on it what they appreciate most about the Botanical Gardens.
They will hand the flag back so the staff can hang the flag inside the Botanical Gardens during the Spring Flower Exhibit, which will start March 10.
“We want to explode into spring, filling the gardens with color,” said Erin Grajek, associate vice president of Marketing & Visitor Experience at the Botanical Gardens.
The colors of the flags will coordinate with the colors of the flowers in each room. The dome will have yellow & white flowers and flags, with other rooms using blues & purples or pinks & oranges. Some flags will have vibrant colors and others will be pastels.
The idea of this exhibit is based on Tibetan prayer flags, which traditionally are used to promote peace and compassion. The Botanical Gardens is grateful for all the support they get from the community, and want to offer visitors the opportunity to share their own memories of the Botanical Gardens and what they treasure about this wonderful community attraction.
“It will be a visual representation of all the garden love!” Grajek said. “It’s really exciting because we’ve never done something like before, of this magnitude. Our goal is to get 2,000 flags.”
Some of the messages so far are memories of a particular event that a family has enjoyed at the Botanical Gardens, remembrance of a loved one and a sentiment about nature.
You can get flags now through December at the Botanical Gardens.
You can pick up flags for your entire garden club or other group to inscribe together, but you must make sure the completed flags are returned to the Botanical Gardens by the end of this year, Grajek said.
“It’s a chance for everybody to be part of the exhibit,” Grajek said. “They can see their flags hanging up in the spring.”
