Whimsical flower crown portraits raise money for Gabriola Island's food bank

A whimsical portrait projectfeaturing locals from Gabriola Island donningelaborate floral headgearhas raised thousands of dollars for the local food bank.

The project is the brainchild of floristSonja Zupanec, who ownsJust Another Weed Patch Farm on the island. Zupanec, along withMegan Dunn and Sue Dunn, and photographerJeanette Martin, were the team behind the series of portraits.

"We had been itching to do something creative all throughCOVID," Zupanec said."We've missed each other. We've missed working with my flowers for big special events and weddings, which we would typically do in a non-COVID, non-pandemicera."

As the end of the flower season approached, Zupanec thought of creating the elaborate floral crownsas a fundraiser for the local food bank.

After soliciting locals including one cow to don the crowns for a series of photo portraits, Zupanec released three portraits online and promised to release the rest if people were able to donate $2,020 for the food bank.

The portraits were very warmly received.

"You can't look at these photos without having a warm feeling in your hearts or bursting out into a laugh, even if you don't know the people," Zupanec said.

And their goal was quickly reached.

"[$2,020] is a number I just kind of made up. I thought that was fitting [since] the year has been kind of a weird year and we raised that money in just about 48 hours," she said.

The team is holding on to a few more portraits to see if they can reach the $4,000 mark.

Gabriola Island is a small community of around 4,000 people, but the food bank is currently supporting 100 adults and 60 children, Zupanec says.

"Those numbers kind of speak loudly to me that we've got some problems, that our food security is not universal on this in this community," she said.

"I think the whole point is to spark some generosity [among]those of us who can, who have survived, with some resilience and extra resources during this pandemic."

The series of portraits and information about how to donate is available on thefarm's Facebook page.