Tuesday, August 31, 1999
Free roses continue Good Neighbor Day tradition
BY LEW MOORES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HARRISON — Matt Hiatt has added 1,500 roses to the mix this year, bringing to 7,500 the number of roses his family's floral shop will begin handing out at noon Wednesday.
For the past two years, Hiatt's Florist, 1106 Stone Drive, has promoted Good Neighbor Day by handing out thousands of roses to the first several hundred people who show up.
Each person is given a dozen roses, but the catch is that he or she is asked to keep one rose and hand the other 11 out to neighbors and friends, even strangers, as a way of staying acquainted, reconnecting or making new friends.
The idea is to foster neighborliness and goodwill.
“It's our way to give something back to the community,” Mr. Hiatt said. “They've sup ported us. We've been in business over 23 years and we haven't been here without our community supporting us.”
Good Neighbor Day is sponsored by FTD, but the floral shop puts up the money for the roses — a few thousand dollars — which are shipped from South America.
“It's just a really nice thing that he does,” said Mayor Dan Gieringer, who will spend some time Wednesday helping to hand out roses at the shop and who issued a proclamation for Good Neighbor Day. One woman wrote her thanks last year. Her mother had died a few days earlier and the roses were passed out to the staff of Clovernook Health Care Pavilion in North College Hill, where her mother had spent her last days.
“When you get a couple of letters that are just heartfelt, nothing else matters,” Mr. Hiatt said.
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