Gloria Huss has spent more than two decades in the flower business, and she still enjoys the variety of her shops sights and scents every day she comes to work.
"Every day there's something different. Different colors and different kinds of flowers," Huss said. "Whenever people get flowers, they're always happy," she added.
Huss, owner of , will receive the Dick Lord Award for outstanding contributions to the at their Annual Membership & Awards dinner on Friday, January 27th at the Doubletree Hotel.
Huss has owned her flowershop in Monrovia since 1989. Besides donating many volunteer hours to the chamber over the years, Huss has also been a member of the chamber's board of directors and is currently on the membership development committee. She has also been a part of --the Monrovia, Arcadia, Duarte town council--for about eight years.
Huss grew up in Whittier and became more involved with the community of Monrovia after she began working at the flower shop she owns today. When the flowershop was still owned by the Garrett family, Huss started out by ringing up customer orders and answering the phone. Eventually she became more involved in making flower arrangements and learned floral design in trade school.
"I just kind of fell into it. It just kind of happened," she said.
In 1989, she bought the shop from the Garrett family right before Valentine's Day. Huss said that while Mother's Day is very popular, Valentine's Day is the busiest day of the year, so her introduction to owning the business came at a very productive time.
"It was kind of like a whirlwind," she said.
Huss sees an advantage to living in California in February, where weather is much milder than in other places. In other parts of the country, there is extra work to be done in the floral business because there is more of a need to wrap everything up due to the cold weather conditions on Valentine's Day, she said.
Film companies also see advantages to Monrovia's sunny weather climate when making films, she noted. Huss began voluntering to act as a liason between 15 years ago.
"They think Monrovia looks like an East Coast town. They like that," she said.
Huss still acts as a go-between between Monrovia merchants and film production companies. For example, if a production company has a question, or is looking for a specific kind of store, she can help them with the location. If there are changes in what they are looking for, they discuss how it will affect the merchants.
For the past two years, Huss has also been involved with the pet food bank at . She became concerned when she spent time at a local Humane Society and saw that many dogs were classified as "Owner Surrender" in cases when owners could no longer afford to feed their pets.
"We package all of the food that is donated and assist in trying to get food donations," she said.
She and her husband have four cats and also recently acquired an Australian Shepherd.
"Pets to me are a member of the family," she said.
Recently, Huss also helped decorate a tree sponsored by Sierra Auto Cars for the Festival of Trees.
In addition to running her floral business and participating community projects, Huss also enjoys traveling and watching professional bullriding in her spare time. She said that her favorite thing about Monrovia is it's small town feel.
"When you walk down the street, people don't just walk by you. They stop and say 'Hello,'" she said.
