A national nonprofit that recycles flowers and donates them to local medical patients has launched its newest branch in Evanston.

Random Acts of Flowers-Chicago, 2000 Greenleaf St., opened last month. Its mission is to repurpose flowers and deliver bouquets through volunteer teams to local facilities.

“There is no discrimination at all with who receives the bouquets,” RAF-Chicago executive director Natalie Berg said.  “We don’t even pick the people. They are actually picked by someone at the facility who knows the patient and they’ll pick someone who needs some light or happiness. It can be anyone, rich or poor. Everyone needs a little something now and again.”

Random Acts of Flowers started six years ago in Knoxville, Tennessee, when founder Larsen Jay found himself in the hospital after an accident, Berg said. She said he noticed that although he had a lot of flowers, many other patients did not, so he took some of his bouquets and began delivering them to others’ rooms.

“He believed that flowers really contributed to making him feel better,” Berg said. “So when he went back and shared his bouquets with other patients, he saw their reactions were powerful. When he got out of the hospital he wanted to find an organization that did something like this and there wasn’t one so he decided to leave his career behind and since then he’s opened up four locations.”

Since its founding, RAF volunteers have recycled more than 70,000 vases nationally, using every part of the flower arrangement, including any baskets, moss or ribbons that came with the flowers, Berg said. The Evanston branch is the nonprofit’s fourth. Wilted flowers and clippings are composted in a community garden. Donations are given by local florists, funeral homes, weddings and other businesses. All workers are volunteers, such as local volunteer Margie Pabich.

“Many hands make the work light,” Pabich said. “It’s a great motto to live by, and that’s how RAF is organized. The surprise effect (of giving flowers) is my favorite. You know how some people say it’s more fun giving a gift than receiving a gift? It’s so cool.”

So far, RAF-Chicago has delivered about 456 flower bouquets in local facilities and local volunteers have contributed over 100 hours of their time. The organization has delivered more than 59,000 bouquets nationwide. RAF-Chicago hopes to reach all the hospitals in the Chicagoland area, local director of mission fulfillment Andrea Lutz said.

“I’m excited that RAF has come to Chicago to bring beautiful flowers, talents, volunteers and donors,” Lutz said. “I see us serving more people. Helping establish anything new (has) challenges, but everyone has been so helpful and supportive throughout our opening process and we could never thank them enough.”

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the number of Random Acts of Flowers’ branches. The Evanston branch is the fourth branch to open. The Daily regrets the error.

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