U.S. interest in Surrey flower training for prisoners
By Dan Ferguson - Surrey North Delta Leader
Published: June 07, 2010 10:00 AM
Updated: June 07, 2010 10:23 AM
During the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Olympics, Just Beginnings founder June Strandberg was fielding questions from people from all over the world.
Reporters covering the Winter Games were fascinated by the story of a small Surrey flower shop that trained troubled women as florists and how it won the contract to provide all the victory bouquets for medal winners.
And most of the reports they filed mentioned that the program started in a prison.
Strandberg had become used to explaining how a parole officer had contacted her years ago about training female prisoners.
The prison program eventually shut down, but a version of it was revived in Surrey at the Just Beginnings flower shop, which helps train former prostitutes, recovering addicts and women fleeing violence.
The women learn the trade in classrooms operating below the storefront location at 13686 96A Ave., across the street from Surrey Memorial Hospital.
Then came a call Strandberg didn't expect.
The warden of a women's prison in New Mexico had seen one of the stories and gone to the trouble to track her down.
He went to the Just Beginnings website to check them out, then picked up the phone to ask Strandberg, a veteran florist, about the Canadian prison program
"He just kept calling back," Strandberg said.
During the last conversation they had, the warden said he was preparing to pitch the program to his superiors.
"I really would love to see that program go [to the U.S.]" an upbeat Strandberg says.
She's offered to go to the American jail at no charge to help them set up a florist training program.
During the Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, the student florists at Just Beginnings were responsible for making 1,800 bouquets, as many as 150 a day.
A total of 27 people worked on the bouquets, with eight to 10 working every day with four designers, three flower care handlers and two lead designers.
"It went like clockwork," Strandberg says.
If you don't count a few times when the delivery trucks were running late.
Because the florists always worked a day ahead, she says the delivery delays didn't keep any bouquets from being ready for podium presentations.
Strandberg began working with troubled women more than 20 years ago.
At the time, the third-generation florist was running two retail stores and operating a trade school for florists.
A parole officer contacted Strandberg and asked if she would be willing to train two women who had recently been released from prison.
That led to the creation of the first Beginnings program that opened in 1991 at the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.
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