As part of the Bears' "Giving Flowers" initiative for Women's History Month, the organization hosted an interactive floral pop-up shop March 3 at Halas Hall, allowing staff members to put together bouquets of flowers for those who have made an impact in their lives.
The club's Women's Employee Resource Group (ERG) led the event alongside the marketing and events teams, partnering with Flowers By Stem, a women-owned and Chicago-based florist that focuses on using floral design as a physical expression of love.
Flowers By Stem brought an array of orange and blue flowers to Halas Hall and helped staff members create beautiful tokens of appreciation for staff members to dedicate to a woman or person who have shaped their lives, including family members, significant others, friends, mentors and co-workers.
The idea to bring in Flowers by Stem originated with the leaders of the Women's ERG: vice president of social and digital content strategy Pooja Van Dyke and assistant athletic trainer Mariellen Mardis.
"We were talking about ways that we could physically honor people," Mardis said. "And you hear the phrase, 'give flowers,' which is a metaphor of giving someone praise while they are alive instead of just when they pass. So we were thinking of a way to represent that in a physical sense, and this is a really beautiful way to give someone their flowers for all that they've done in our lives or in our careers."
The Women's ERG launched last spring. The group, which is open to all Club employees, strives to create community and support women across the Bears' football and business operations and fanbase. Throughout the past year, the group has fostered an environment of belonging and created intentional connections in a variety of ways, including volunteer efforts in the Chicago community, general body meetings at Halas Hall and interactive experiences. Later in the month, the Women's ERG will host a yoga event for staff to recharge, reflect and reset for the upcoming season.
"The Women's ERG creates space for staff across football and business operations to connect with purpose," Van Dyke said. "When we invest in community and professional enrichment, we strengthen the culture of the entire organization."
The floral shop, the latest of those efforts, created a space for staff members to celebrate each other as well as all of the other special people in their lives.
Manager of premium membership service and retention Allison Brauer's flowers were dedicated to her mother, Linda, who works in the sports marketing department at Gatorade.
"My flowers are dedicated to my mom: Mama Linda," Brauer said. "She has worked in sports her entire life and has been an inspiration in my career path. And simply put, she is the GOAT. It's the coolest thing to have her as my example, because it's obviously pretty rare to be a woman in sports, but for her to start her career off that way and stay there and just dominate in that space is awesome."
Ted Crews, special advisor to President/CEO Kevin Warren & chief administrative officer, gave flowers to his wife, Michelle, mother, Bobbie Crews, mother-in-law, Deborah Willis, sister, Tiffany, and daughter, Olivia.
"My mom is a very special woman in my life," Crews said. "She has taught me everything I know. Our personalities are very similar, so I feel like she's with me every day. My mother-in-law has known me since I was 16. She allowed me to date my wife back then, and she's ridden with me through all these years. And my sister and I are like, Mutt and Jeff. It was just the two of us.
"And Michelle's the love of my life. We've been rolling on this crazy journey since our junior year of high school. I respect her and who she is as a mom, a wife, how she's allowed me to do what I do and what she does for us every day. It means everything. And then Olivia's my joy. She is my joy. I'm so grateful that the Lord gave me a baby girl."
Ana Gauder, premium membership services specialist, dedicated her bouquet to her mother, a lawyer, who "showed my sister and me that you can have a great career and be an awesome mom, too."
Gauder, who joined the Bears within the past year, feels a deep appreciation for their commitment to honoring women throughout the organization.
"This is super impactful because working in sports was something that I didn't even know existed when I was in college," Gauder said. "It wasn't until later on when I graduated that I found out that there was a space for me in sports. I grew up just loving football in my whole life, so to see all of us be recognized and just how many women there are in this organization is really special."
The club also paid tribute to Katie Nagle, a beloved longtime Bears executive assistant who passed away Sept. 2, 2024. Following Tuesday's event, a bouquet of flowers was left at Katie's Garden, a spot just outside Halas Hall created last spring to honor Nagle, whose ability to make genuine connections with anyone she met left a lasting impression on everyone in the organization.
The event was equally as impactful for Flowers By Stem founder and creative director, Stephanie Stopka, who created the company in 2005. A Chicago native, she was raised a diehard Bears fan by her father, Bill Cullerton, a long-time Season Ticket Holder.
Stopka called working with the Bears "a dream," but to do so in celebration of Women's History Month was even better than she could have imagined.
"As a woman fan, it's really nice that we are celebrated just as much as anyone else," Stopka said. "So it feels really good. Seeing how much people love flowers, it's always such a nice reminder when I get to do these flower bars that people love flowers. It brings joy to them. I really love bringing that to them.
"And this is the merging of all my passions because I've been a Bears fan my entire life. I've had Flowers By Stem for 20 years. So it's really the melding of my passions in one day. It's perfect."
