'A bridge between Nashville and Ukraine': Florist donates proceeds to people in Ukraine

As the bombs fall on Ukraine, a Nashville florist and event planner is trying to make a difference — one bouquet at a time.

For Alina Kamilchu, 32, the horrors of the war are personal. Kamilchu, founder and owner of local event-planning and floral business Petals & Fields, is of Ukrainian heritage. Her parents fled the country, then part of the Soviet Union, in 1989. They settled in Sacramento, California, where Kamilchu grew up, but left many loved ones behind.

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Now, those loved ones are in danger. One cousin escaped into the mountains where she is in hiding, and a friend's husband was killed volunteering for the Ukrainian army.

“I feel helpless because I have friends and family in Ukraine, and I can’t be there,” Kamilchu said.

But doing nothing didn’t sit well with her. Passionate about social justice, she moonlights as a licensed private investigator and believes “we all have some type of responsibility in life.”

So she resolved to help, and in mid-March, her “Flowers for Ukraine” initiative was born.

The formula is simple — Kamilchu will donate 100% of the proceeds from select bouquets directly to her friends and family affected by the war.

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The bouquets, which start at $65, pay homage to Ukraine in subtle ways. A typical spring mix could include star-shaped tweedia in periwinkle, butterfly ranunculus in cheerful yellow, and Kamilchu’s personal favorite — Japanese sweet pea, a silky flower in blush that becomes more fragrant as it warms.

Yellow and blue, the predominant shades in the arrangement, are the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

But Kamilchu says customers can order any design they want with flowers in any color. As long as the customer requests that their payment go to Ukraine, she will accommodate them.

So far, Petals & Fields has sold about 35 bouquets for Ukraine.

"We’re trying to spread the word,” Kamilchu said. “I want to get it out there so people can actually help.”

Customers can purchase the bouquets through Petals & Fields’ website.

Flowers in the family

Flowers and design have always been a family affair for Kamilchu.

As a child, she watched her mother lead classes and workshops on how to arrange and decorate with flowers. "I still contact her to this day and ask, 'Hey, what do you think about this design?' And she'll give me her opinion. The thing about Russians and Ukrainians — we're very straightforward."

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Then, when Kamilchu was 16, her parents bought a floral business where she regularly helped out.

“I just learned what it means to serve people and to bring beauty and life to any room,” she said. “Just being able to do that and serve was my passion.”

Kamilchu grew up with a keen appreciation for the life her parents won when they fled the Soviet Union. To this day, she said, they marvel at the difference between Alina’s upbringing and the lives they left behind — hours waiting in line for food, washing clothes for eight children by hand.

“It was a very hard, difficult life,” Kamilchu said. “And my parents knew they needed to leave to have freedom and to live life to the fullest.”

Now, Kamilchu finds herself in a position of privilege in respect to her relatives and friends in Ukraine. And she wants to pay it forward.

“I’m trying to create that bridge between Nashville and Ukraine,” she said. “That’s the goal.”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville florist donates proceeds to friends, family in Ukraine