A Blooming Impact In Hopes For Change
How one Quinnipiac freshman brought a worldwide project to campus
As spring blooms in Connecticut, the sight of patches of yellow cover the ground leading around Quinnipiac University’s field hockey field. From far away, the patch could be recognized as flowers, but up close, the flowers are daffodils.
The yellow daffodils are more than just a sign that spring has arrived, but behind each delicately planted flower lies an important message.
Bundled up nicely together yet so singled out, each daffodil remembers lives lost during one of the world’s darkest times: The Holocaust. The Holocaust officially ended 80 years ago when Allied forces saved thousands of Jews from concentration camps ruled by Nazis.
Although this horror happened so long ago, many people across the world manage to honor those who lost their lives. This includes Jennifer Bloom, a freshman at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, who brought the idea of planting daffodils to the Mount Carmel area of the campus.
The idea is a part of a global project called The Daffodil Project, which plants 1.5 million daffodils around the world, a steady reminder of the 1.5 million children who perished during the Holocaust. The goal of the Daffodil Project is to educate and spread awareness to the public about the Holocaust.
The daffodils represent the yellow Star of David, Jews were forced to wear throughout Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, signaling them out from others, which resulted in humiliation and cruel gestures. However, the color yellow also means remembrance, and daffodils represent hope for the project. Daffodils also return every year after being planted, another sign of hope as well as renewal. So far, the project has planted over 1.1 million flowers throughout the world.
Bloom’s idea to have the yellow flowers be planted at Quinnipiac came from a past experience that first led her to connecting with a Holocaust survivor. When she was 13, she joined a program called Twin With A Survivor, where she was paired with a survivor, Fred Heyman, who will soon turn 96.
Twin With A Survivor, which is through the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest of New Jersey, is a program that brings young Jewish people together with a survivor of the Holocaust or a child/grandchild of a survivor. When the young person performs their mitzvah during their bar/bat mitzvah.
In the program, the b’nai mitzvah (child/children of commandments) will perform the mitzvah (a commandment) of becoming a witness to those who witnessed the Holocaust. Through this, the b’nai mitzvah will include the survivor’s story of their survival at their bar/bat mitzvah.
From this experience, Bloom and Heyman have become close.
“Me and my whole family, we met with him for months and heard his story, and through that, we really built a strong connection,” Bloom stated. “He changed the way I see the world, and I carry his lessons with me every day.”
As Bloom continued to learn and gain a connection with Heyman, she knew she wanted to spread awareness to help others. About four years ago, she found out about The Daffodil Project through learning about Holocaust remembrance and education..
Following joining the project, Bloom began to plant dozens of daffodils around her hometown of Randolph, New Jersey. Her first place was Fred’s house, followed by her high school, with the help of her school’s National Social Studies Honor Society, and the camp where she worked. To date, Bloom has created five Daffodil Community Planting Events for the Daffodil Project.
“My parents are also incredibly supportive—they stood by me every step of the way, helping with the planning and logistics. I truly appreciate them and everyone who has had a part in the Daffodil Project for everything they have done to make these events possible,” Bloom stated about her work on the projects.
Now, Bloom has planted daffodils outside the field hockey field at Quinnipiac University. She knew she wanted to plant flowers at the university, and with the connections through the school, she was able to make it happen.
“I reached out to President Judy Olian, and I know it sounded like a crazy idea, but she was so helpful in it and connected with me with all the right people, and so it started becoming more of a bigger thing,” Bloom said.
With Olian’s help, Bloom was connected with the members of the school’s facilities department including Vice President Keith Woodward. From there, they helped set up a specific time and day to plant the flowers in the school yard. She then reached out to Melissa Kaplan, the administrative director of the university’s honors program, and Professor Laurie Seeger, the director of the entry-level master's physician assistant program, which Bloom is in.
With her goal of bringing diversity and different communities of Quinnipiac University together
Bloom was then connected to the women’s club soccer team president, Jadyn Fleischhacker. With the help of everyone involved, a large number of people participated in planting, resulting in 500 daffodils being planted near the field hockey field.
“Contributing to the project definitely helped me to feel more connected to the community (of Quinnipiac,” Fleischhacker said. “I'm glad we were able to support a great cause located on campus.”
Haley Matesa, a member of the soccer team on campus, also appreciated contributing to the planting.
“I hadn't heard of the Daffodil Project before we went and helped plant flowers, but after learning about it, I was glad that we could help include Quinnipiac in such an important cause!” Matesa said.
She also believes that planting will help showcase to others that there is still a lot of suffering going on in the world. “I think the flowers help serve as a reminder that there are so many innocent people, and specifically children, that are suffering due to ongoing conflict and crisis in their country.”
Once the team and the other planters planted the daffodils, they emerged a few weeks before withering. During these weeks, students across campus were able to visit and learn about the project as the flowers swayed in the breeze.
“It was nice to see people putting together a project for Holocaust memorials on our campus.” Said Fleischhacker. I think the team also enjoyed the fact that we could come back in the spring and see our hard work.
Then, Bloom got noticed by the university for her project, and her work was posted on the official Quinnipiac social media on Instagram and Facebook. However, Bloom wasn’t expecting to have the Daffodil Project and her hard work be showcased to thousands of followers on Quinnipiac’s social media.
“I was never expecting any recognition out of it, but it really feels nice knowing that people also care so much about this,” Bloom said. “I was not expecting to see any posts about it, but it really is nice and also just spreads awareness, and people who didn't know about it before found out about it, and it's nice.”
As the yellow flowers continue to shine brightly against the warm sun, immersed in a community of diversity and inclusion, plans for planting more are in the works. Bloom hopes that she will be able to continue planting daffodils next year and the following years that she is at the university.
“My hope for bringing the Daffodil Project to QU (Quinnipiac) is to create an everlasting testament to hope and humanity on our Quinnipiac campus, and now every April for years to come, we will get to experience a magical explosion of brilliant yellow daffodils that everyone can celebrate and enjoy,” Bloom said.
