Senator Jay Costa and President of Scent with Love Ellen Gaus picking up a flower delivery at Trader Joe’s in East Liberty.
Have you ever attended a wedding and thought how it’s such a shame that the flower arrangements will get thrown away after the event? If so, you aren’t alone.
While attending a friend’s wedding in early 2018, Shannon Haldeman had that exact thought and decided to do something about it. She founded Scent with Love, a volunteer organization based in Pittsburgh that collects flower arrangements and delivers them to locations around Pittsburgh to brighten someone’s day. Beyond weddings, the organization also works with grocery stores and other organizations across the city, including Trader Joe’s in East Liberty.
We spoke with Scent with Love President Ellen Gaus to learn more about the organization, the good work they’re doing, and how those interested can get involved.
How did you get involved with Scent with Love?
I began volunteering with Scent with Love in 2019, having been immediately drawn in by the creative repurposing of flowers and preventing waste. Scent with Love is the best of all worlds—not too much time for a pickup and delivery, you know exactly what to expect with quantity and materials for the flowers, you’re preventing waste, AND you’re bringing joy to those who may not otherwise receive that thoughtfulness and kindness. I’m honored to serve in the role of president in order to manage and develop relationships with donors, vendors, and our volunteers to ensure everyone has a pleasant experience.
What do these flower arrangements mean to the recipients?
Recipients love seeing this unexpected gesture of kindness. We love getting messages of thanks from our partners in various charity organizations, nursing homes, shelters, etc. We often hear that the flowers really brightened the days of the staff and those receiving services, or that the flowers were a great pick-me-up. Beyond hearing or seeing how the flowers impact recipients, I personally love anonymously giving flowers—it doesn’t matter that we may not have a personal connection to the receiving organization.
Everyone is deserving of dignity and kindness and there is something so special about knowing that someone thought of you, even if they don’t know your name and story.
How many volunteers do you have and how do you coordinate all of the pick-ups and deliveries?
Scent with Love has a distribution list of about 80 volunteers that use a shared spreadsheet in Google Drive to share volunteer opportunities. Scent with Love has established relationships with dozens of florists, event planners, and venues in the Pittsburgh area which is a critically important way to get the word out about Scent with Love and choosing us to repurpose the flowers. Once an individual is interested in donating their centerpieces to Scent With Love, we send a form to get all the important details pertaining to the pickup. After sharing the opportunity with volunteers and getting someone to sign up, we send all those confirmation details to the volunteer, venue contact, and form respondent so everyone knows exactly what to expect.
Where do most of your donations come from?
Trader Joe’s in East Liberty regularly gives to Scent with Love and we get well over 100 wedding/event centerpiece donations per year. Weddings are the main focus, but we will gladly repurpose centerpieces from event dinners, conferences, etc.
What’s next for Scent with Love?
To just keep growing! There are hundreds of weddings in Pittsburgh every year, and we’d love to be able to have more opportunities to repurpose those flowers. But growing in request means growing in volunteers, so we need to grow all around! We became a Burgh Brides verified vendor in 2022 as well as an official 501c3 which were huge steps for us. We are thrilled to receive whatever folks are able to share with us—their centerpieces, their time to volunteer, or a financial donation.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Scent with Love would not be possible without so many different folks coming together and believing in this mission. We are truly honored to be trusted with such a heartfelt gesture of delivering cheer through flowers. THANK YOU to everyone who has a part in Scent with Love—our board, our donors, our volunteers, florists, wedding planners, venue contacts, and recipient partners.
