Kirkwood alumnae Dorothy Plagmann and Tracy Sherzer
Kirkwood Floral Careers student creations brighten the day at CR senior center
The classroom projects were too pretty not to share.
That was the sentiment at Kirkwood Community College several years ago, when the faculty in the Floral Careers program admired some finished work of their students’ lab exercises. Their ideas converged around taking corsages and other floral arrangements to local senior care centers in the Cedar Rapids area.
That idea has now become a tradition. An early July trip to a center on the city’s northwest side gave students, instructors and alumni alike some enjoyable personal connections in the process.
Floral Careers Program Coordinator Lora Dodd-Brosseau and her students spent some summer class time learning the multi-stage processes of building a corsage. Students quickly amassed several dozen of the wedding/prom mainstay decorations. Then they packed them up for delivery to the Ridgeview Care Center on F Avenue NW in Cedar Rapids.
“We have been sharing corsages created in lab sessions for several years now. I collect them after class and take them to different care centers each time,” Dodd-Brosseau recalled.
“When I distributed the corsages at Ridgeview, I was amazed that it seemed every table had someone with a Kirkwood story. One said her grandchild had a great experience with our Disney World internship program. Another has a granddaughter who had just entered our Nursing program, and had been a caregiver for her before she moved to the care center. It was wonderful to find out how many ways we touch lives and enrich families,” she said.
Center Activities and Life Enrichment Director Tracy Sherzer says the students and their creations were warmly received and greatly appreciated by her residents. “It was a great time for everyone, and you can tell how much they appreciated the gifts. The next morning so many residents were wearing the corsages and showing them off as we went about our daily activities,” she said.
Sherzer also noted at least one additional Kirkwood alumni connection among the Ridgeview center residents.
“When Lora brought the corsages, it prompted Dorothy Plagmann to share her story, too. Dorothy was a non-traditional Kirkwood student in the 1970s, and earned her two-year degree there in 1975. She continued learning at Coe College, and earned her four-year Art degree there in 2008. Dorothy is a model of lifelong learning,” Sherzer said.
She pauses and smiles. “To top it off, I was a Kirkwood student. I earned my associate’s degree in 2010, then graduated from the University of Iowa in 2012 with a degree in Therapeutic Recreation,” Sherzer added.
Dodd-Brosseau says flower sharing from their lab work is part of Kirkwood’s wider philosophy of practical course experience and putting students in touch with the wider community.
“We are very pleased to brighten peoples’ days in so many ways. Our students contribute decorations for many campus events throughout the year. The Horticulture/Floral Careers building itself is a working laboratory, outside and inside. From the lawns to all the plantings in all directions, our end of campus is a teaching work in progress, every month of the year,” she observed.
College Ag Science leaders also point to the prominent landscaping and plantings along the Interstate 380 interchanges as more examples of student creativity at work for the betterment of the metro area image.
More information on Kirkwood’s Floral Careers program is available from Lora Dodd-Brosseau at (319) 398-5528.