In early March, two weeks into Russia’s assault on Ukraine, Steven Dyme watched a clip on NPR’s Twitter feed about a florist in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, who had just stocked her shop with fresh spring blooms when war broke out.
“When we bought the flower bulbs, no one thought the war would come,” Anzhela Kolesnik told the NPR reporter. “We knew there was fighting in Donbas, but we were still working. We have always worked, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
By the time the bulbs bloomed into flowers, Kolesnik was surrounded by shelling and explosions.
“It was a shame to throw them out,” she said in the clip.
So she kept her shop open — a small slice of beauty and hope amid unspeakable violence.
Dyme also sells flowers. He and some buddies launched Flowers for Dreams a decade ago as a college project, and it’s grown into a multistate operation. Dyme and his colleagues choose a different charity each month to receive 25% of their profits. In 2021, they launched a foundation to support causes of justice, refugees, mental health and more.
“It’s kind of the Flowers for Dreams way to pay attention to what’s happening in the community and then get inspired to find ways to help,” Dyme told me Sunday.
I first met Dyme in May 2018, when he selected MASK (Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings), a Chicago group that works to interrupt gun violence, as that month’s charity. Flowers for Dreams also delivered bouquets with handwritten notes to moms who were grieving that Mother’s Day.
I have followed his story through the years and run into him at community events. In May 2020, three months into the pandemic, he arranged for hundreds of bouquets to be delivered to hospital workers — health techs, nurses, janitors, doctors, you name it — who worked on Mother’s Day.
His heart, to me, embodies the best of us.
When he saw that NPR clip, he knew he wanted to help.
“A couple customers and a couple of our employees stepped up and said, ‘I can help you find this person,’” Dyme said.
They contacted the Ukrainian Florists' Society to no avail. One of the Flowers for Dreams software developers used Google Maps to try to track down her address based on the short video clip. That led them to four florists in Mykolaiv. They direct messaged each of them on Instagram.
“One guy named Sergey from a nearby florist responded to us, ‘That’s not me, but I know her. I’ll go find her and see if she’s there,’” Dyme said.
She was. The next morning, Sergey sent a video of Kolesnik, standing outside her shop, surrounded by gorgeous bouquets for sale. (You can watch it on the Flowers for Dreams Twitter or Instagram feeds.)
She and the Flowers for Dreams staff exchanged notes on Instagram. They learned she was opening her shop each morning and then retreating to a bomb shelter at sundown with her husband and baby.
“We told her we were going to contribute a small amount of money so she could close her shop,” Dyme said. “She had 15,000 stems and we wanted to buy them so she would be able to get to safety. That was the initial goal.”
She turned down the offer.
“I do not need your money,” she wrote. “You can financially help our soldiers who are at checkpoints. Our soldiers lack warm clothes, personal hygiene products, cigarettes and even food. I’ll buy everything, take it to them and be sure to send you a report.”
Dyme wired her $2,000.
“We called it unrestricted,” he said. “If she can close her shop and get to safety, we want her to. But the idea is to help her however she wants. It’s similar to how we do all of our donations, unrestricted. People know how to do their jobs better than us.”
At the time of this writing, Dyme said the money was still pending transfer. He texts with Kolesnik daily to check on the progress.
I sent Kolesnik a message on Instagram.
“Steven is a very nice person,” she replied. “He searched for me for a long time and found me.”
She wrote that she is surrounded by explosions.
“Everyone needs peace over their heads,” she wrote.
The $2,000 is important. I hope it arrives, and I hope it can be put to meaningful use.
But it’s also not the whole point.
Dyme and his colleagues did what so many of us do — heard a news report and wished he could help.
And then they did that harder part — turned the wishing into action.
“Our main mission is to help another florist, another human being,” Dyme said. “But yeah, hopefully this can inspire and catch fire and help people find their own way to help.”
And that’s the whole point. Always. But especially right now, when we need to side loudly and lovingly with humanity.
