In the front yard of her Carrollton home, Joanna Cattanach and her two boys blanketed the front flower beds with yellow and blue blooms Wednesday.
“Carrollton doesn’t have buildings or water towers to light up, but we do have great and fantastic soil. So I thought what if we use this opportunity to do something that can honor the people of Ukraine, the struggle that they’re going through,” said Cattanach.
It’s an initiative she announced at Tuesday’s city council meeting, inviting neighbors and the city to join in by planting flowers or using pots the color of the Ukrainian flag around the city.
She’s calling it Carrollton Plants for Peace.
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She hopes neighbors will sign up to register their yards as part of the movement.
“This is my way to honor them and it’s a way we’re hoping people can show support as well,” she said.
A community sense of support is the same driving force behind an initiative in Aledo at Two Sisters Teahouse to collect personal hygiene items for Jeremiah's Hope, a Ukrainian ministry with Texas ties.
"We jumped in on this to help these refugees because of the love and empathy that our little town feels for these people,” said employee Donja Donnelly.
In Richardson, Sprinkled with Pink Shop CEO and Founder Kendra Laine said she was watching the news when she felt inspired to act.
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“Instead of sitting here on my couch in tears, we wanted to get to work. So we are a custom product-based business, so we said, ok what can we do?” said Laine.
Within a few hours, she’d designed a sweatshirt that read ‘Make love, not war.’ Within 24 hours, proceeds had raised $1,000 for BStrong, an organization providing emergency assistance for those forced to flee home.
"I think one of the beautiful things in this horrible thing that's happening is everyone coming together,” said Laine.
