The Dogwood Tree seeks donations, volunteers for annual flower tribute to UVA football players

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - The Dogwood Tree is asking for donations, flowers, and volunteers for its annual flower distribution in remembrance of three UVA football players who were killed four years ago.

The Dogwood Tree and UVA football have partnered every year since November 13, 2022, to bring flowers to Grounds in honor of UVA football players Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler, and D’Sean Perry, who were killed by a gunman after a class trip four years ago.

Sarah Bowen, the shop’s owner and education director, said the flowers give people a chance to pause. She referred to “the tragedy that we as a community experienced that day.”

“We have found that, you know, it really helps be able to take a moment to just remember each other,” Bowen said.

This year, the shop is asking for donations, flowers and volunteers.

“We’re going to open up our shop on Thursday so that members of the community can come in and help us build the bouquets that historically we’ve built ourselves every year,” Bowen said. “And then on Friday, we hope to have people actually go to the locations and give out the flowers where we in the past have just left buckets.”

Bowen said the tradition is about more than flowers.

“We want to rise above hate. We want to rise above the negativity in the world. And we want to bring something beautiful out of something that was so ugly,” Bowen said.

The flowers will be available at the Beta Bridge, the Memorial, and the north gate of the stadium on Friday.

Bowen says that if you want to make an in-kind donation of flower stems, they will take them all day on Wednesday, where they will be open from 10 to 6 at the location on Ivy Road.

“And then on Thursday, we will be opening up our location here on Ivy Road to anybody who wants to come in, student, community member, and help us put those bouquets together. And we’ll be open from 12 to 6 that day to do those things,” said Bowen.

Bowen also shared that volunteers can meet Friday, November 13 at the shop to help with volunteering.

“On Friday, if you’re interested in either picking up a bouquet or helping to distribute those, you can meet here at around 10 a.m. and then we will disseminate those out to their locations.”

The GoFundMe link can be found here.

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