Attention, Time, People, etc.:
Go ahead and call off your search for “Man of the Year.” Yes, it may only be February, less than 1/6 of the way into 2016, but already we have the perfect candidate.
Meet Hayden Godfrey. He’s a high school senior in Smithfield, Utah who bought 900 carnations —one for every girl in his school — for Valentine’s Day. He worked three jobs (a cook at McDonald’s, a dishwasher at a Mexican restaurant, and a bag boy at a grocery store) for 10 months to afford the $450 needed to pay for this grand gesture.
Godfrey totally gets it: Flowers aren’t just pretty objects; they create feelings of joy and make people feel special.
He’s been doing something similar, albeit on a smaller scale, for the past four years. His mother said he got the idea in middle school when he noticed some girls looking sad because they didn’t have a Valentine. In interviews with various national news outlets, Godfrey said he remembers what it felt like to be single on Valentine’s Day and didn’t want any girls to feel lonely or unloved.
“It was totally worth it,” Godfrey said of the work it took to afford the carnations. “I don’t think anything can compare to seeing every girl in your life holding a flower as they walk through the halls.”
Godfrey’s story is one worth sharing. Let’s make it go viral so he sees the industry’s appreciation of his gesture and potential customers realize that flowers make people happy.