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Help honor service members and veterans

You can serve your country with just a few crayons.

The Royer’s Kids Club is participating in the American Red Cross “Holidays for Heroes” program, which collects coloring pages and holiday cards for service members and veterans. 

Download one of these free coloring pages or, if you feel especially creative, make a card of your own.

Coloring pages and cards can be dropped off at any Royer’s store during normal business hours through Nov. 14.

Royer’s Kids Club offering free ‘spooky succulents’ with first virtual event

Children of an earlier time did the monster mash. The Royer’s Flowers & Gifts Kids Club has an updated take on Halloween: spooky succulents.

The kids club is celebrating the season with its first virtual event, offering free take-home kits that will allow children ages 5 to 12 to decorate a Halloween tin with a succulent plant.

Kits include a tin decorated with a jack-o-lantern, mummy or Dracula; two-inch succulent; cellophane for lining the tin; instruction sheet with QR code linking to a video with assembly and plant-care tips; and a Halloween coloring sheet.

Kits must be reserved at royers.com/kidsclub while supplies last, limit three per family. In-store pickup of the kits will be available Oct. 19-24.

Royer’s is encouraging moms and dads to send photos of their child’s completed project to kidsclub@royers.com for sharing on social media.

Emily Rivera wins Royer’s Kids Club birthday card design contest

The outcome of last year’s Royer’s Flowers & Gifts Kids Club birthday card design contest was bittersweet for Emily Rivera.

Emily is entering third grade in Lancaster County.

She was happy for her older sister, Allison, who submitted the winning drawing. But Emily had entered the contest, too. Her parents, Debbie and Angel, explained that there could be only one winner.

And this year, that winner is Emily, who dropped off her entry on her ninth birthday, at the Royer’s Lancaster West store. Emily, whose family lives in East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, will be a third-grader at J.E. Fritz Elementary School.

“She loves to read,” her mother said. “She enjoys math.” With the help of a friend, Emily learned how to turn a cartwheel this year.

Emily’s winning entry (featuring flowers and the message, “Have a beautiful birthday”) will adorn the electronic card that kids club members will receive on their birthdays in the coming year. Her prize is a flower delivery.

Congratulations to Emily and thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s contest. We hope to see your entries again next year, so keep drawing!

Meanwhile, the Royer’s Kids Club is free for children ages 5 to 12. Parents may register their children at any Royer’s store or at royers.com/kidsclub. Kids club benefits include a membership card, online activities, a quarterly e-mail newsletter, contests and events.

Royer’s Flowers accepting entries for kids club birthday card contest through July 15

The winning entry in 2022

The Royer’s Flowers & Gifts Kids Club is looking for its next birthday card design.

Children ages 5 to 12 are eligible to participate in the kids club’s annual design contest. The winner will receive a free bouquet delivery on his or her birthday.

The card is emailed to kids club members on their birthdays.

Entries must be dropped off by July 15 at any one of Royer’s 16 stores in Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties, including one Stephenson’s Flowers & Gifts location in Harrisburg.

To download an entry form (and to join the kids club at no cost), visit royers.com/kidsclub.

Let’s look behind the scenes and in the tool box at a flower shop

Flowers are beautiful all on their own, but it takes talent, dedication and resources to hand-craft an eye-catching, long-lasting floral arrangement and deliver it to a recipient’s home or place of work.

In its newsletter, the Royer’s Flowers & Gifts Kids Club regularly showcases the tools and tricks of the trade that our florists draw upon to do the very best work for our customers.

We’ve compiled some of them below. We hope you enjoy this behind-the-scenes look into the dynamic nature of a flower shop.

Apron

Superman wears a red cape on his back. Royer’s Flowers designers have something similar, except they wear it on the front.

It’s an apron, and its pockets hold all the tools they need to be floral super heroes: a knife to cut flowers; scissors to cut thicker stems or ribbon; calculator to add flower prices; pen/pencil to take notes from a customer; highlighter to mark special delivery times and other can’t-miss information; permanent marker to identify the contents of boxes before they are packed away; even a mini-screwdriver in case something needs tightening.

Aprons are embroidered with the Royer’s Flowers logo and have a place for a name tag so customers can identify the designer and how long he or she has been with the company.

Tape Grid

The tape at the top of these vases looks like a game of tic-tac-toe, doesn’t it? It’s a tape grid, and it helps us space flower stems evenly. It also provides support to the stems so they stand tall and look their best.

Tape

We use three types of tape depending on the color of the container: clear tape for glass, white tape for white containers, and green tape for baskets and other dark non-glass containers.

The reason for the different colors is that we want our customers to focus on their beautiful flowers and not the tape.

Floral Foam

Those green blocks in the photo are called floral foam. The foam holds cut flower stems in place to make arrangements look pretty. It also holds water so the flowers last as long as possible.

Scissors

If you use scissors for craft projects at school or home, you might have a future working in a flower shop! We use several different types of scissors in our stores. Some are just for cutting flowers, some are made to cut thicker stems such as evergreens or lemon leaf, and others are just for cutting ribbon. We never use ribbon scissors on flowers because the blades would get dull and wouldn’t cut the fabric straight.

No matter what you do with scissors, it’s always important to use them safely.

Uniforms

If you play soccer or baseball or another sport for a team, then you probably wear a uniform. Maybe it includes a shirt with your team’s name on front and your number on the back.

Royer’s employees are part of a team, too. They might not be kicking or throwing balls, but they are constantly in motion. They practice how to make beautiful arrangements so they are ready for their big games, such as Valentine’s Day or Christmas.

They wear uniforms, too. They wear the Royer’s logo on their shirts because it helps to make each employee feel and work like part of a unified team. It also makes it easy for customers to know who they can ask for help.

Plastic Wrap

When we sell flowers, we put them in pretty plastic wrap. It’s kind of like when you wear a coat or sweater: the wrap helps keep the flowers warm and protects them from the wind when they go outside. The wrap also makes the flowers look extra special, like a gift. 

Delivery Vans/Drivers

Our delivery vans and the men and women who drive them are crucial to the success of our business.

Once one of our designers creates a gorgeous flower arrangement, it’s up to our drivers to deliver them safely and on time. Of course, the flowers have to look as good as they did when they left the store, which can be a big challenge when it’s really hot or cold or stormy.

Our drivers might be the only Royer’s Flowers employee that customers see if they ordered over the phone or online. So we have to hire people who are safe drivers but also happy and friendly and keep their uniforms and vans clean because they represent our company.

Drivers have a lot of responsibility, but they also have the good fortune to deliver presents of flowers to people.

Royer’s Kids Club hosting free St. Patrick’s Day event March 11 in all stores

Participants will make this arrangement featuring daisy poms.

For the first time since the pandemic began, Royer’s Flowers & Gifts will host a free kids club event in all stores at 2 p.m. March 11.

Children ages 5 to 12 will have an opportunity to make a St. Patrick’s Day arrangement with white and yellow daisy pom pons, leatherleaf fern, baby’s breath and a glitter shamrock stick-in.

Registration is required by contacting your nearest store.

Lebanon-based Royer’s operates 15 stores in Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties. Sister company Stephenson’s Flowers & Gifts has one Harrisburg store.

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Allison Rivera wins Royer’s Flowers birthday card design contest

Allison Rivera, 9, enjoys playing any game with a ball, including tennis with a neighbor.
But regardless of whether the East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, resident ever masters her forehand or backhand, she’s already a skilled freehand artist.
“She loves to draw, loves to color,” said her mother, Debbie. “She always has.”
And she’s gotten so good at it that the fourth-grader at J.E. Fritz Elementary School aced this year’s Royer’s Flowers & Gifts Kids Club birthday card design contest.
Her winning entry will adorn the electronic card that kids club members will receive on their birthdays in the coming year. Her design features white daisies set against a purple background and the message, “Have a Flowertastic Birthday!”
Allison’s prize is a free flower delivery on her next birthday.
Allison, whose family also includes her sister, Emily, 8, and father, Angel, loves to draw flowers and people, her mother said. One of her specialties is drawing a person’s face on the side of a cake when it is his or her birthday.
The Royer’s Kids Club is free to ages 5 to 12. With parental permission, children may register for the kids club here or at any Royer’s store. Kids club benefits include a membership card, online activities, a quarterly e-mail newsletter, contests and events.

One creative child will win a flower delivery in Royer’s annual birthday card design contest

Last year’s winning entry

Like the start of summer break itself, Royer’s Flowers & Gifts’ annual birthday card design contest presents a blank canvas.
Royer’s is challenging children ages 5 to 12 to design an email birthday card that all Royer’s Kids Club members will receive in the year ahead.
The artist with the winning entry will receive a free bouquet delivery on his or her next birthday.
To enter the contest, download an entry form here or pick up one at any Royer’s store, create a design, and drop off the entry at any Royer’s store by July 15.
Good luck to everyone!

Where are they now? Former Royer’s Kids Club members Alex and Marisa Heisey

Siblings Marisa and Alex Heisey were regulars at Royer’s Kids Club events.

 
If Marisa Heisey ends up at a college in western Pennsylvania, the Conestoga Valley High School junior will follow in the footsteps of her older brother, Alex. He is a sophomore at Grove City College, an hour north of Pittsburgh.
It wouldn’t be the first time the close siblings have walked similar paths. A decade ago, they won Royer’s Kids Club contests in back-to-back years.
In 2010, Alex, then in third grade, won the kids club’s birthday card design contest. In 2011, Marisa, then in first grade, won a back-to-school coloring contest. (In 2017, while in seventh grade, Marisa also won the birthday card design contest.)
Alex and Marisa are the children of Nevin and Joy Heisey of East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County. At the time of Alex’s win, his mother said, “Both of my kids love flowers.”
We caught up with Joy recently for an update on what her children, long since having graduated from the kids club, are up to now.

Majoring in business management

Alex in 2010, when he was in third grade.

At Grove City College, Alex is majoring in business management with a focus on supply chain.
“He loves Grove City,” Joy said. “He really is enjoying his experience there.”
While some colleges resorted to online studies-only during the pandemic, Grove City stuck with in-person classes, albeit at times with mask requirements.
“He’s very thankful to be in-person on campus this whole time,” Joy said.
His varied interests and busy schedule have taken Alex beyond his school’s campus, too.
Through his involvement with Impact, Grove City’s outdoor adventure leadership program, Alex has backpacked in southern Virginia, ice climbed in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and skied in New York.
He is a library aide, training to become a tour guide, and a member of the school’s human-powered vehicle club. The latter involved designing and building something that resembled a recumbent bicycle and racing it in Michigan.

Leaning toward nursing school

Seventh-grade Marisa with her prize in 2017.

When we spoke with Joy, she had just come back from one of five planned college visits with Marisa, who is leaning toward nursing school, either in Pennsylvania or Ohio. She was preparing to take the SATs in May and again in June.
Marisa is active in student council, music and science honor societies, school bible study and her church’s youth group. She is one of eight Conestoga Valley girls participating in a mentorship program through the Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce. She works in the bake shop at Kitchen Kettle Village.
“She still loves drawing,” Joy said. “She’s very much (into) water colors, she likes to paint ceramics.”
Joy fondly recalled her children’s involvement with the Royer’s Kids Club. They were such regulars at kids club events that store employees knew the family members by name, Joy said. Marisa was officially too young for the club when Alex started going, but the staff would let her participate anyway.
The Heiseys still have mugs, vases and baskets from the various kids club event projects.
“That’s a good memory,” Joy said of attending events.
Better still, the kids club events seem to have inspired a lasting love for flowers in Joy’s children.
Last fall, Marisa won a flower-arranging contest at the West Lampeter Fair, just as she – and Alex – had done in years past.

Entries due July 15 for this year’s Royer’s Kids Club birthday card contest

The winning design in 2020

Just in time for summer vacation, the Royer’s Kids Club has a challenge for children ages 5 to 12.
We’re looking for our next birthday card design, one that all kids club members will receive in the year ahead.
As a reward, the designer of the winning entry will receive a free bouquet delivery on his or her birthday.
To enter the contest, which begins June 14, pick up an entry form at any Royer’s store or download one here.
Entries must be dropped off at a Royer’s store by July 15.
Good luck to everyone. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!