by Grace Gausden

A Women’s Institute organisation has been leaving floral surprises for the public to find as part of a campaign.

The St Stephen’s WI has been planting bouquets of flowers around the Canterbury area as part of their ‘Lonely Bouquet’ campaign.

Felicity Tasker, a long term member of the St Stephen’s WI, said: “We feel so lucky to be able to do this.

“We started the campaign last year to push the public to look after lonely people and not let them go by the wayside.”

Members of the WI spent an evening putting together bouquets to be distributed locally and have urged people to take home the bouquets if they found them and share images of them via social media.

Each bouquet has a note attached telling the finder to take it home or to pass it on to someone else to make them smile.

It also invites the finder to attend a WI meeting or to invite someone to attend a WI meeting if they are lonely.

Ms Tasker said: “I think we will do this campaign ever year.

“We have had a great response from people who have found the bouquets. It gets our name out there and has increased our membership.

“We currently have about 50 members and more young members than ever.”

The group are also personally sending out bouquets to older members of the WI and the public who do not have the ability to go out and find the flowers themselves.

The National Federation of Women’s Institutes originally teamed up with The National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies last year to create the campaign.

If you find one of the bouquets, let the St Stephen’s Canterbury WI know through their Facebook page.