After a gunman killed 22 people and injured another 24 at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, the team at Debbie’s Bloomers poured their devastation into helping their community grieve.

“When we heard about the shooting, all we could think was, ‘What can we do to give back?’” said Marisa Chanel Guerrero, AIFD, CFD. Within days, the shop — with generous support from industry partners — had become a hub for people looking for ways to show their love for the victims.

One thing both Guerrero and Sandy Blanco, TMS, knew they wanted to do: Help ensure that all of the victims’ families had access to floral tributes for their memorial services. The pair started by calling local funeral homes, to let the directors know they were ready to help, especially when it came to those families who might not be able to otherwise afford floral tributes.

The shop received immediate support from Teleflora and the Texas State Florists’ Association; both groups reached out to offer their networks. TSFA helped organize floral donations to the shop courtesy of Greenleaf Wholesale in Albuquerque. Guerrero and Blanco soon had a cooler full of beautiful flowers and a desire not to let a single stem go to waste.

The question? How to get them out to their heartbroken community quickly.

“Sandy delivered a wreath on behalf of TSFA to the memorial site at the Walmart, placing it near an American and Mexican flag that had been erected there,” Guerrero said. “When she got back to the store, she said she wished we could just bring a cart to the Walmart and hand out flowers — there were so many people there, and it was so sad.”

The Debbie’s team didn’t have the staff available to head back to the memorial, so they came up with a Plan B: Wrapped bouquets, available for free, for anybody who stopped by the store.

To help spread the word, they reached out to local news stations, one of which came to the store the next morning to spend several hours documenting the constant flow of people into the retail florist, all of them turning to flowers to help soften their profound sense of loss.

“We were just happy to be able to find some small way to give back,” Guerrero said. “It was heartbreaking, but it was also the power of flowers in action — the power to heal and to comfort. We saw that throughout the week.”

This is not the first time Guerrero has helped communities after a mass shooting. In October 2017, she was in Las Vegas for the Wedding MBA conference when a gunman killed 58 people and injured more than 400. She was one of dozens of floral designers who volunteered to create a memorial for those victims.

Mary Westbrook is the editor in chief of Floral Management.