We passed out over 800 flowers to unsuspecting strangers

‘Petals for Peace’ event advocates unity, amid violence in the world

“Petals For Peace” was a philanthropy event held on July 30, 2016. Their mission was to, “pass out flowers to strangers in hopes of raising spirits and spreading smiles instead of the bad news we hear everyday”.

As Muslim UH students, Zulkifl Gire and Anees Noor knew that the community needed unity after the bombing of the Muslim holy city, the recurring instances of police brutality, and a local shooting of a Muslim man.

Many days were made in Houston’s Hermann Park.

The idea originated from Noor, a 20 year old Engineering Technology student, who said, “I haven’t watched [the news] in years because every time you watch it there is something depressing that just ruins my whole day. But in the past month people on Facebook, it hurt to see videos of either the police shootings or the aftermath of a bombing somewhere in the world. The first event that really got me thinking about doing something was when a Muslim man in Houston was shot going to the Morning Prayer. When my mom said a Muslim man had been shot outside of a mosque, it hurt because I never thought something like that would happen in Houston. I found out who it was, and while I didn’t personally know him, he has given lectures at my mosque before and I have attended events that he hosted. I knew that he was humble and sincere; and there was no reason for anyone to shoot him. Then there were the videos of the two Black men that were shot by police and the bombing in the Muslim holy city and that was my limit.”

“One night I was watching YouTube videos of trump supporters and I even read the article you did. So I messaged Zulkifl and I told him this is something I wanted to do and he said alright. I made a Facebook event page and we invited everyone we knew. I didn’t think we’d get more than 10 people but 40 people said they were going and the amount of support we got was ridiculous. Even from people we didn’t even know.”

Before we passed out flowers

Zulkifl Gire, a 21 year old Electrical Engineering student, said: “We’ve done events such as food drives and toy drives, which were amazing, but this event was just something else. It was mainly because we would have the opportunity to actually interact with people and see the effect that it has on people. So when Anees pitched the idea, it was definitely something that I wanted to help create.”

“How cool would it be to make people’s days like that. Just give them a flower, something they never expected! And there’s no catch- just a random act of kindness. It was a much more fun and exciting experience than everything we’ve had before. We were able to get the whole community involved and show that in spite of all the horrible things that happen in this world, there are still good people that genuinely care and are willing to spread smiles.”

Kate Mellie Ndenga, 20 year old UH Business student, gives flowers to stranger

In terms of responses, Noor encountered a few unexpected ones.

“There is one family friend that I always get advice from with whatever I am doing for example with the toy drive and food drive. When I told her about the flowers she was extremely supportive and gave me ideas on how to present the flowers and where to get them from and she gave me $100 without me asking.

“On the other hand there were some negative unexpected responses. They all basically had the same message which is, why would you waste money giving flowers to a bunch of strangers? To them they did not see the point, but I kept working towards it and I am extremely happy with the turnout. Some of the reactions from the people receiving the flowers were very touching and it felt good knowing that all the hard work paid off. It was nice to have a group of people from different races and religions come together and prove to everyone that media is wrong and instead of fighting each other we should just have peace and be happy because at the end of the day, we’re all human beings.”

Diverse turnout

They plan on continuing this trend. Even if you aren’t in the Houston area, Noor encourages you to do something similar to this in your area. “It only takes a bit of planning, some donations, and people willing to help. There is nothing bad that could come from it, and I am positive you would make some stranger’s day.”

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