"I wanted to give away flowers to help spread kindness and make people happy," said Adah Lake, 10, of Morgantown, the founder of Kindness Blooms, which provides free bouquets of freshly picked flowers from the family's backyard to community members.

The effort began last summer, when Adah began offering free flowers to members of the Twin Valley Gift and Take Facebook group. When the blooms are available, her mother, Anne, posts the information on the Facebook page.

For this year, Adah, with help from her mother and father, Steve, constructed a flower stand to display the flowers in front of the family home. The stand, which is wooden with an aluminum roof, is made from all recycled materials.

"She has worked hard this year making our new stand and growing flowers from seed that we started way back in February," said Anne.

The bouquets feature several flower varieties. "We have black-eyed Susans, daises and cone flowers," Adah pointed out.

"We grew sunflowers from seed for this purpose," Anne added.

Adah crafted a sign for the stand, which reads, "Free bouquets to make your day." In addition, one of the recipients of the flowers created a hanging sign for the stand modeled after Adah's cardboard version.

At the newly constructed stand, Adah places the small bouquets in containers filled with water, which are free to anyone who stops by. "We use aluminum cans that we recycle, or people have given us vases or jelly jars. We use anything (we can)," said Anne, noting that some flower recipients have donated empty containers.

Since the effort began, Adah has given out more than 35 bouquets. "Last week, we gave way 12 or 13," Anne said. "They go pretty quickly. Sometimes when they are gone, we scramble to make more throughout the day."

Adah's parents pointed out that the Twin Valley Elementary Center, where Adah attended, promotes community service and holds an annual random acts of kindness challenge.

"Beyond something that we encourage as parents, Twin Valley Elementary Center always encourages kindness. That was their theme," said Anne. "That was engrained in (Adah) from the wonderful staff and administration at the school."

Adah will begin classes this fall at Twin Valley Middle School, where her brother, Harper, attends. She plans to continue to give away flowers as long as blooms are available. "We love gardening, and Adah loves gardening with me," Anne said.