Welcoming the Baltimore Orioles home to Sarasota is such a pleasure when you get to greet the first 1,000 ladies with a bird of paradise flower! We truly welcomed the Baltimore Orioles (birds) back to paradise.

This was the idea created with Laura Williams of the Orioles last year to kick off the new stadium, and welcome our new Baltimore Oriole family. It was so well received, we continued this year with a little twist. We had employees of Beneva there to greet the ladies and welcome them to the ballpark with the flowers. PLUS, each flower had a tag on it for people to download our FREE app for a chance to win an iPAD2 from Beneva. People had a ball. It was exciting to see the interest from fans and friends who were taking the tag and scanning in the app so they too had a chance to win. Dozens of fans registered, and yet this morning more are coming in.

After passing out the flowers, we all gathered in the outfield picnic area for food and drinks while we watched the Orioles and Pirates kick off the season at Ed Smith Stadium. I enjoyed personally seeing so many customers entering the park and a few brides who we had the privilege of providing flowers for their wedding day.

While sitting at the game, people continuously approached me to give them care and handling tips for their flowers. Ushers kept bringing people over and apologizing. I said, “Please, it is my pleasure.” Showing people how to open a bird of paradise manually was a shocker to most and fun for me to show.

Then, in the 6th inning, one lucky fan won the SWEETHEART of the GAME bouquet of BIRDS of PARADISE and was featured on the scoreboard.

Who ever thought flowers and baseball went together so well?

The Sarasota County Commissioner Joe Barbetta said it best, “It’s great to see local business and an event like this all come together.” Community support is what make Sarasota so special!