Florists turn loss of Juno awards into win for charity

The owners of a Saskatoon flower shop may not get to see their work at the Junos, but they found a way to turn a disappointing Thursday morning into a positive one.

Quinn Brown, co-owner of Quinn and Kim’s Flowers, told The Starphoenix he was in the middle of preparing the first delivery of floral arrangements he and his wife had prepared for the awards when word arrived the Junos were cancelled in light of the COVID -19 pandemic.

“Just real anticlimactic to a lot of work we’d done on the back end,” he said of learning the hours of painstaking preparation would all be for nought.

On top of it all, Brown said they had agreed to provide the roughly $15,000 worth of work for the awards free of charge.

“We just viewed it as advertising,” he said.

With the awards cancelled, the Browns weren’t content to simply let the flowers wilt.

They turned to social media, offering up their Junos arrangements for $20 apiece, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going to Teen Challenge Saskatchewan, a non-profit working with youths struggling with addictions.

“It took, literally, maybe two hours and we had 160 pieces just gone,” Brown said.

It took, literally, maybe two hours and we had 160 pieces just gone. Onward and upward — we’ll live to see another day.

While he admitted it still stings to lose the chance to see the results of their work, Brown said he and Kim remain honoured to have been picked, and glad they could find a way to create some good in the situation.

“Onward and upward — we’ll live to see another day. So, it’s all good,” Brown said.