After taking the Advanced Placement Environmental Science class, Palmetto High School junior Alejandro Vogel has become firmly committed to the concept of reuse and recycle. So, when he discovered that perfectly good, beautiful flowers purchased for events are trashed because they are extras, he came up with the idea for Enchanted Flowers.
“My mom has a lot of friends who are party planners and she told me that they would throw away the flowers and not use them,” he says. “I started thinking of way to reuse them. Reusing, recycling. I thought that was nice way to reuse the flowers instead of throwing the away in the garbage.”
He gives the bouquets to residents of The Palace in Kendall who would not normally receive gifts.
“Basically, brightening up their day,” he says.
Vogel hopes to expand to other facilities as well.
As a high school student, making bouquets was not a skill set he had acquired. So, he asked for help.
“The party planners taught me how to put them together,” he says. “You have to make it look nice and you wrap the flowers.”
He makes 25-50 at a time depending on how many flowers are available.
“I try to disperse the flowers so that everyone gets one bouquet,” he says.
When he has the time, Vogel goes to the party planners’ offices and picks up the flowers. He takes them home to make the bouquets.
He can’t do it as often as he’d like, which bothers him because he doesn’t want the flowers thrown out when they could be used to make people happy.
When he goes to pick them up, it’s usually around a special occasion such as Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day.
“My friends usually help me make them. And I get some help from my parents,” he says. “It takes a day or two. I’ll pick them up from Wynwood. I’ll take them home and make the bouquets the same day. Usually on Friday. Then I’ll deliver them either Saturday or Sunday. A lot of the time, one of the residents will see me handing flowers to the resident, and they’ll ask me for one.”
Vogel is also involved in Friendship Circle. He and a friend have been paired with a buddy that they visit three to four times a month. He’s had the same buddy for five years.
“We’ve seen a lot of changes in him. He used to be shy and awkward,” Vogel says. “But now he’s outgoing. He loves to play with us.”
In addition to visiting his buddy, Vogel has participated in Friendship Circle summer and winter camps as a counselor.
“They pair you up with a buddy. It’s really fun. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who needs community service.”
At Palmetto, Vogel plays varsity soccer, is the treasurer for the Spanish Honor Society and will be student council treasurer next school year. He’s historian of the Science National Honor Society.
He participates in a variety of science competitions. He competed in Advanced Placement Chemistry in the Chemathon at Barry University.
Palmetto won second place overall and he ranked tenth among the participants. He’s also been on one of the Envirothon teams.
Although he won’t be sending out college applications until the fall, he has decided that he wants to major in engineering, specifically in environmental, chemical or bio-medical.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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