Shore’s Aria Harkavy Giving New Life to Flowers and Smiles to Seniors

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

Shore Regional High School interact club members Mary Creighton (left), Ava Caputo (middle) and Sophia Howe (right) help make flower arrangements for Fleur Once More.

Nearly four years ago Aria Harkavy was leaving a bat mitzvah and saw all the beautiful flowers and realized after the celebration they would be discarded. That’s when she and her mom, Stacey, decided they could reuse the flowers and make a difference in people’s lives.

“My mom and I came up with the idea of taking the flowers and making them into new arrangements to bring to senior citizens. At first it was just her and I collecting, creating and delivering,” said Harkavy.

Now a 17-year old junior at Shore Regional High School and a member of the Interact Club, Harkavy told Kristen Encarnacion, who is the club advisor and an English and Special Education teacher at Shore about what she was doing.. “She thought it was a great project and now our club is involved,” said Harkavy.

Harkavy has started a foundation called Fleur Once More. “We reach out to party venues, weeding locations and funeral homes, asking for donations of floral arrangements once the service has been completed. My mom or my dad (Jason) and I would go and pick up the flowers,” Harkavy said.

Damiano Funeral Home in Long Branch reached out to Harkavy to say they had some flowers for her foundation. Harkavy family  picked up the flowers and then 20 students from the interact club wanted to help. “It was great, we had students donate vases and their time making arrangements and Mother’s Day cards,” said Harkavy.

The students were able to turn those funeral floral arrangements into Mother’s Day gifts for seniors who had no family around. “We contacted a few locations and one told us of 14 women who were mothers and didn’t have any family members that were close. So we took the flowers to that nursing home,” said Harkavy. They were not allowed to personally see or hand the flowers to the moms, but the staff at the facility said the women cried when the staff told them who they were from.

Harkavy said that two of her friends, Mary Creitaton and Lily Dicianni were huge supporters. “I was so impressed with the help and enthusiasm that the students of the interact club had given this project. Currently I am working with our advisor (Encarnacion) and freshman at Shore Regional to make sure that Fleur Once More continues long after I graduate,” Harkavy said.