Brighter Days Ahead with Sugar Bloom

Three years ago, Rachel Clark was an emotional and mental mess. Her mother had recently passed away after a long, hard battle against breast cancer, and Clark, who’d been with her every step of the way, had witnessed the devastating toll the disease can take.

“On the one-month anniversary of my mom’s passing, I woke up filled with such awful anxiety—it was the same feeling I’d had while she and I were sitting in the hospital waiting for results,” says Clark, who knew she had to do something positive.

“I felt if I could reach out and help one person, then I had to try, so I wrote to my mom’s oncologist and asked if I could bring an orchid and letter of encouragement to a cancer patient who could use a pick-me-up, and she said yes.”

With that “yes,” Clark began delivering what she hoped would brighten someone’s life on the 23rd of every month. “My mom was called ‘Sugar,’ so the staff started calling the orchids and letters ‘Sugar blooms.’

“I always add my email address to the letters just in case someone wants to reach out to me. Three months went by, and a lady named Ann sent me an email asking if we could meet, so we had lunch and she told me how much she appreciated what I did.

“Then one day I was dropping off a delivery and there was a guy who stopped me and said, ‘I got one of your orchids and letter. Thank you so much. It meant a lot.’ I don’t think I realized the impact something so small would have.”

With each delivery, Sugar Bloom’s impact and reach out into the community grew. The nonprofit Sugar Bloom Foundation was formed early last year, and in June, “Moving Forward,” a series of free community wellness classes that support cancer patients’ healing, was established at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital.

A junior Sugar Bloom program, initiated by Clark’s sons as a way to deal with their grief, has school-age children writing letters and creating care packages for oncology patients.

“The past three years have been amazing,” says Clark, a note of happy wonder in her voice. “What started out of an expression of grief has become a full-fledged movement. To date, Sugar Bloom has delivered over 1,500 orchids and 3,000 letters to oncology patients.”

“People kept telling me I needed to have a fundraiser, so here we are, hosting our first gala January 23 at the Lake House in Fort Pierce. Its going to be a night of garden-inspired glamour with orchids and fairy lights in the trees, a string quartet, catered dinner, dancing, and an overview of how Sugar Bloom has grown and where we’re going.”

“If I could talk to my mom, I would tell her how much I love her and miss our daily exchanges,” Clark says. “Every day there are so many little things we take for granted. I tell people to take the time to reach out to brighten someone’s day. It can make all the difference in the world.”