Valentine’s Day Carnations: Ashton Laucks

For this week’s post I decided to nominate someone whose service I personally noticed and was touched by—Ashton Laucks, a junior at ELCO High School, who spent February 14th handing out carnations to those who missed the Valentine’s Day carnation sale. He bought 15 carnations—the largest purchase of the entire sale. Below is what he shared with me about his experience:

“Well, after I got the carnations delivered to me, I put it out on social media that I had a bunch of flowers, and that anyone who missed the sale could swing by me and get one, free of charge. After that I spent the rest of the day answering messages about them and getting them to the people who wanted them.”

“I had originally bought them to be delivered to myself as a joke; just to be funny. But once I got them, I got the idea of actually putting all those flowers to good use. I figured there would be plenty of people who missed the sale or didn’t receive any carnations from anyone or something who could really use them.”

“During the experience it dawned on me that the act of doing something kind for other people really can help make you feel better about yourself when you’re down. You really do get by giving. So this definitely provided me with that understanding, and also showed me that kindness doesn’t need to be planned out and choreographed, it’s really a choice you make all the time and opportunities to be kind can crop up out of nowhere.”

Ashton’s example is so inspiring, and exactly represents how being kind and serving others is uplifting to oneself. It is truly the perfect example for ELCO Cares, so thank you to Ashton for your service, your story, and your kind example in our school!