ANNA LEACHMAN
Willow lays by a window in “Jules with the Flowers” plant shop on Oct. 17, 2020. Willow was found outside the store sick and injured when shop owner Jules Sandlin took her in. Willow now resides in the store and greets customers as they walk in. VOLUME 96 • ISSUE 9
WEEK OF 10.20.20
BLOOMING
Bowling Green flower shops come in a variety of styles By Henri Aboah aronie.aboah179@topper.wku.edu
Bowling Green features flower shops all around town. There are over 10 floral shops with many different stories of how they came to serve the community. Flowers Around the Corner, owned by Tyler Janes, has been up and running for the past two years on Broadway Avenue. Janes said that flowers and plants were a big hobby of his, so he decided to make it a career. According to Janes, he is the youngest florist and business owner in Bowling Green. “I’m only 24, so sometimes people don’t take you seriously because you’re younger as they would with a middle aged person,” Janes said. He also hires employees from WKU’s floral program like Hope Reed, a senior from Lexington, who has been working there for a year now. “It’s a great experience, and I’ve learned most of what I know about floris-
try through the job,” Reed said. Just down the street from Flowers Around the Corner is Jules with the Flowers. WKU alumna Jules Sandlin owns the shop and has been in business since 2017. Sandlin was a horticulture major while she attended college but didn’t get into floristry until she made a wedding bouquet for her sister-in-law. Her favorite part of the job is working with customers. “We develop relationships with people because people get flowers for certain occasions,” Sandlin said. “I’ve done people’s weddings and then I’ve done their newborn baby. I’ve watched people date and done funeral flowers.” “We’re involved in these really big aspects of people’s lives and it’s pretty special,” Sandlin said. Ellen Buchanon, the owner of Deemer Floral Co. on Lehman Avenue, said
her family business has been around for over 100 years. The business was originally started in 1903 but was owned by someone else. “My grandparents bought it in 1922, then my parents started working here and then I started working here after I got out of college,” Buchanon said. Buchanon is happy with the staff at Deemer Floral Co. because “we have a really good staff of experienced designers.” Deemer Floral Co. services all of Bowling Green and Warren County, she said. Another floral shop seen around Bowling Green is one with a twist. Seeds Flower Truck is a floral shop on wheels. “When my husband and I were getting married, he asked me what I loved to do and I told him that I loved flowers and that I wanted to do a flower truck,” Shelby Hingle, the owner of Seeds Flower Truck, said. “So we bought a flower truck.”
The flower truck opened on Aug. 8. She said it was a great experience learning what it took to be an entrepreneur during the coronavirus. Hingle said that they set up at different locally owned businesses because they want to promote local businesses. “I’m really grateful for the opportunity to have done it,” Hingle said. “It’s been better than we expected.” Another floral shop, MacKenzie’s Flowers, opened up about 15 years ago, according to store manager Beverly Dalton. According to Dalton, the previous owner had a love of flowers and wanted to put her skills to use, so she started MacKenzie’s Flowers. She had a thoroughbred horse named MacKenzie, and that’s how the floral shop got its name. The store closed temporarily for a few
FLOWER SHOPS • A2
Record setting voter turnout expected this election season By Easton Reynolds easton.reynolds653@topper.wku.edu With Election Day coming up on Nov. 3, early voting underway and millions of mail-in ballots being processed right now, this election is likely to see unprecedented voter turnout. “We expect 65-70% of the electorate to vote,” Saundra Ardrey, a political science professor at WKU who specializes in voting and electoral behavior, said. Higher participation among the electorate usually means dissatisfaction with the status quo, Ardrey said. “The electorate is a little bit more concerned, a little more upset about different issues,” Ardrey said. “That usually means they are not satisfied with the way things are going.” According to a Gallup poll conducted
in September, only 14% of the country is satisfied with the way things are going in the United States, nearly reaching the historic low of 7% satisfaction rate
during the 2008 Recession. Ardrey said this is a culmination of multiple different factors ranging from COVID-19, social injustice, economic
Saundra Ardrey Political Science Professor
“You threaten the system when you have disaffected people who do not get immediate results.”
stagnation and more. She says these factors will likely increase turnout among marginalized groups. “You threaten the system when you have disaffected people who do not get immediate results,” Ardrey said. Voter registration campaigns in-person and online, especially on social media, have increased voter registration numbers dramatically. For example, an Instagram post by Kylie Jenner with a link to vote.org increased website activity by 1,500% according to The Hill. Other organizations like Bigtent Creative are also reaching younger voters through social media. A massive $350,000 campaign was implemented to
VOTER TURNOUT • A2