Free flowers spread smiles among shoppers at Mall of America

It is a Pedal It Forward day at the Mall of America, handing out several thousand flowers to shoppers, and among them, Lauren Andrejko out there enjoying the, you know, the nice weather indoors, but also what a great gesture this is. What is this all about? It really is, Rob. Yeah, so the Society of American Florists puts on this national movement, Pedal It Forward, And it's all about giving out random acts of kindness. You forget about just how little effort it can take to make a huge difference in someone's day. And Scotty and I, my photojournalists, have been having an excellent day just watching people's faces brighten up. As they walk in and out of the rotunda, most people had no idea this event was going on. But Bachman's is here, first time they're doing this event at Mall of America, and it's simple. Grab two stems. They're letting you grab them yourself this time. Take one for yourself, any flower you want, and then take a second one, and that second stem is to share with someone you love, with somebody random, anybody that you think might need a little brightening in their day. I want to introduce you to Christina here with Bachman's. You are like Santa Claus here today, giving out gifts. I feel like flower Santa Claus. This is so fun. You are the flower Santa Claus. Tell me a little bit about what people's reactions are when they get in this line. Whether they know this was happening or not, I think they're just so happy because flowers just make people happy. You work at Bachman's. Can you tell me a little bit, just your observations on the difference a flower can make in somebody's day? We give flowers for any occasion in this world, and I think it's just so fun to see everybody's smiling faces. whether they're expecting it or not so have you heard any like special stories today anything that stood out to you about where people are going to give their second flower yeah there was a couple that came through and said it was actually their anniversary and it was so sweet and so we gave them like a whole bunch of them and oh my gosh congratulations to them you also have been just giving buckets away to mall employees i saw a very happy Wetzel's Pretzels employee grabbing a whole bucket that she was going to bring to her employees is this like the the best day of the year for you? It's so fun. It's so fun. I'm already looking forward to next year. Yay, I love it. Well, it's going on until one o'clock today. Let's see if we can talk to some people. I would like to talk to this lovely woman in a beret. Hello. Hi. What is your name? Elisa. Did you know this was going on today? No, I did not. Oh my gosh. I love the flowers that you chose. What are you going to do with your second flower? I think I'm going to give it to my mom. Oh. Yeah. We're hearing a lot of moms getting flowers today. That one's going to mom. Any reason you guys picked the lilies out? They're so pretty. Yeah, they popped out to me. They did. They did. They're very pretty. Okay, well, you guys have a good day. Thank you. Hi, friends. Can I talk to you? What is your name? Soraya. Soraya. What's your name? Mesa. And what's your name? Fman. You guys get to keep one flower, and you get to give one away. Do you know who you're going to give away your flower to? My mom. Your mom. What about you? My sister. Your sister. Why did you pick out these flowers today? Because they're colorful and my mom likes pink. Oh, my gosh. Older sister? Oh, my gosh. This is really fun to teach the little kids about random acts of kindness. Yeah, it is. Who are you going to give your extra flower to? Probably my mom. Oh, my gosh. The moms are really winning today. We've been hearing a lot of really heartwarming stories today, and there are so many flowers that they're letting you take as many as you'd like. I saw one stroller of three little kids who were all giving their flowers to mom. I also saw another man who said he would have given his flower to his mom. She passed away. She would have been 107 now, but he found her favorite flower. He's going to put it in a vase in remembrance of her today. And another little girl who I talked to just a couple minutes ago, she said she doesn't know who she's going to give her flower to. She's going to walk through the mall until she finds someone who looks like they need a flower, which was just about the sweetest thing I've ever heard. This is going on until one o'clock today in the Rotunda. Rob, it's a part of a big national organized event, Pedal It Forward. You can go online and look up hashtag Pedal It Forward and see video after video of these heartwarming exchanges of people just who give the opportunity to give a random act of kindness out to someone else. And this is about my favorite assignment I've ever had. That is really, I mean, it looks like they have a pretty wide assortment of flowers there to choose from. Yeah, they said 3,000, but I don't know. I'm not really that good at math. I'd say it's probably closer to 30,000. There's so many flowers here. So they're giving away buckets. I got to give one more shout out. One of our photojournalist counterparts from across the street, his name is Gary. His wife, Donna, works with us at Fox 9. And he said, if you're going back to the station. Can you get a flower and make sure Donna gets it? So Donna, if you're watching right now, don't leave yet. I have to bring you a flower back to the station after this. That's so nice. Good thought. All right. Appreciate it, Lauren.