'You Deserve A Flower' Project: Nathan Ira, Montana College Student, Passes Out Flowers To Strangers

'You Deserve A Flower': College Student's Campaign To Make Strangers Happy
Montana State University fine art student Nathan Ira, 23, gifts a flower to Barb Holliday as she walks down Main Street in downtown Bozeman Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012. For the last two weeks, Ira has been giving flowers to random people throughout the community as a way to brighten the day of a complete stranger. (AP Photo/Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Mike Greener)
Montana State University fine art student Nathan Ira, 23, gifts a flower to Barb Holliday as she walks down Main Street in downtown Bozeman Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012. For the last two weeks, Ira has been giving flowers to random people throughout the community as a way to brighten the day of a complete stranger. (AP Photo/Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Mike Greener)

"For whatever you are dealing with, you deserve this."

Nathan Ira has distributed more than a hundred flowers with this message to complete strangers on the streets of Bozeman, Montana.

A 23-year-old cook and a fine arts student at Montana State University, Ira began the 'You Deserve A Flower' campaign to help brighten the lives of complete strangers, reports the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

"Sometimes you can tell by the look on their faces or the way they walk," he told the Great Falls Tribune. "You can just tell they need a flower."

The note also lists his email address and people are encouraged to write him about what the flower meant to them. He posts the responses on his website.

The feedback from people who receive his flowers is, unsurprisingly, overwhelmingly positive. Here's one from a Turkish foreign student:

Hey stranger,

Thanks a lot for noticing little details about others where lots of people just pass by.I was really having a bad day,struggling with my study notes. It was my first exam in America and i felt extremely nervous. When you first handed me the flower, i was a little shocked because in Turkey we are not used to this kind of "thoughtful people". After reading your note i just got relaxed and became more comfortable with myself and the exam. It is probably one of the effects of that lovely flower.

Thanks again.

"It doesn't matter who you are or where you've been, you're dealing with something difficult," Ira told the Billings Gazette. "It's one of the undeniable truths: Everyone's dealing with something."

His dream is to watch the project take on a national initiative -- a network where volunteers, donors, and random do-gooders can buy flowers for strangers anywhere in the country. Ira hopes that someday a stranger will hand him a flower.

"That would be really incredible if it came full circle," he said.

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