AMA Dance & Music School Teams Up with Florist Flowers for Dreams

Recital day at AMA Dance & Music School turns flowers into backpacks for over 30 Chicago Public School students living at or below poverty.

A time-tested staple at dance recitals across the country, congratulatory flowers and roses have long accompanied tap/ ballet shoes, dance costumes, and trophies at recital day festivities. This year AMA Dance & Music School in Des Plaines decided to put them to use in a different way. Director Ann Marie Frank invited innovative floral service Flowers for Dreams to sell floral bouquets to family and friends at AMA Dance & Music School’s June dance recital – for a unique and worthwhile cause.

For every bouquet over $27 sold, Flowers for Dreams donates a backpack – complete with a year’s worth of school supplies – to a Chicago Public Schools student in need (while anything under $27, 10% is donated to a backpack). Following the June 8 and June 9 recitals, total sales enabled the Flowers for Dreams team to donate 35 backpacks to 35 CPS students living at or below poverty.

Co-Founder of Flowers for Dreams, Joseph Dickstein, applauded AMA’s commitment to service and the success of the project: “The parents, Ann Marie and the entire AMA administration took a chance on something unique and over 30 backpacks and nearly 1,500 critical school supplies later, they will have helped two classrooms of local students get the resources they need to compete and achieve. It is a positive thing that such a respected institution of learning is positing conscious efforts to give back.”

For now, Flowers for Dreams plans to send out an all-studio invitation to celebrate this accomplishment. Flowers for Dreams will host its 2nd annual Build-A-Backpack Day on August 17 on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. All supporters are encouraged to come package the backpack(s) which they were able to donate. People from all throughout Chicagoland will join to participate in the donation of over 4,000 critically stocked backpacks to 4,000 low-income students in need. A record shattering figure compared to years past.

You can find out more about the Flowers for Dreams initiative and how to join in on the celebration for education by visiting their website: www.flowersfordreams.com. There you can register your own events, signup all sorts of fundraisers, and order meaningful, affordable, fresh arrangements of every variety for delivery in Chicago — starting from just $27.