For a group of women across the globe, running gear doesn’t only include shoes, athletic tape and gels. It also includes flowers.
Tori Sager, Mel Charbonneau and a group of girlfriends wore orange daisies in their hair during a race in 2011 so that they could spot one another, not knowing that that decision would change their lives and so many more.
“It was months later where I found myself putting this flower in my hair still,” Sager told TODAY. “That flower connected me back to those women, and those women were my support structure.”
Tori and Mel realized that flowers could bring the same strength and encouragement to other women. The two began the business “Fellow Flowers” to spread the support to other women through the simple – yet spirit-boosting- accessory.
“Fellow Flowers is a women’s running community that honors, shares and celebrates the reason why women put one foot in front of the other in running and in life,” Sager said.
There are currently 12 flowers available that symbolize different reasons, including green for courage, pink for worthiness and more. Four years after Tori and Mel came up with the idea for Fellow Flowers, more than 25,000 women have joined their cause.
“We send flowers all over the world from our basement,” Mel said. It’s Mel and Tori’s hope that for every woman wearing a flower in her hair on race day, that she feels support from a sisterhood that may never meet face to face.