A Burnaby florist spent part of Christmas Day handing out stockings to residents living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
With the help of some friends and a few customers, Mandy Karpoff successfully doled out 350 stockings, which were filled with items like toiletries, snacks and warm clothes.
“I kind of lost count because it was crazy,” she said.
This is the third consecutive year Karpoff, who owns Plush Floral Studio in the Heights, has done the stocking initiative.
About a month before the big day, she asks customers to drop by her flower shop and pick up a stocking. They’re returned stuffed with goodies, what she said is “cheaper than a cheap bottle of wine” and can be done with $10.
Forty stockings were handed out in 2014 and another 200 last year.
Karpoff noted the response from the community this season has been “overwhelming.”
“There was a half a dozen of my friends, but then there was some of my customers (helping), and they were like, ‘Can I bring my kids?’ That was really cool, too, so I think it ripple effected in a way we didn’t plan,” she told the NOW. “We had five vehicles go down, all full.”
Karpoff wants to keep the momentum going, so she’s planning to do something similar for Valentine’s Day. She’s dubbed it Project Purse.
Anyone who brings in a gently-used purse (murses and handbags are OK), filled with the same kind of items that were in the stockings will receive a 10 per cent discount off their next purchase.
“I just think it’s sad that how within a 10-minute drive, there’s such a divide how we live versus how our peers live, and I don’t think it’s good. I don’t think (the answer) is to do nothing and pretend it doesn’t exist,” Karpoff said.
Plush Floral Studio is at 3978 Hastings St.
