Arlene Sorensen, AAF, president of Lincoln Wholesale Florists Company in Lincoln, Neb., received the 2006 Paul Ecke Jr. Award on Sept. 28 during SAF Naples 2006, the Society of American Florists’ (SAF) 122nd Annual Convention in Naples, Fla.
First presented in 1984 as the Golden Bouquet Award, the prize was renamed in 2002 to honor Paul Ecke Jr., AAF, of Paul Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, Calif., an accomplished businessman and true industry leader. The award is a symbol of exemplary devotion to the floral profession, industry and community.
Together with her parents and her husband, Harold, Sorensen founded Lincoln Wholesale in 1954. The company, a wholesaler of fresh and permanent flowers as well as florist supplies, has expanded three times its original size since then. Sorensen took on her present role as president following Harold’s death in 1979.
Industry Commitment
As an active SAF member, Sorensen is best known for her efforts on Capitol Hill. She has participated in SAF’s annual legislative conference, Congressional Action Days, for 23 years and was a member of SAF’s Board of Directors from 1992 to 1995. She served the following two years on the National PromoFlor Council. Sorenson also chaired SAF’s Wholesale Council and Government Relations and Awards committees and was a member of the Convention Committee.
Sorensen has been on several Wholesale Florist and Floral Supplier Association (WF&FSA) committees and was the organization’s first female president, from 2000 to 2001 – a milestone that she keeps in perspective. “I like to think of myself as a businessperson first who happens to be a woman,” says Sorensen, who also was the first female president of Lincoln Wholesale.
Under her leadership, WF&FSA developed the innovative marketing campaign “Wholesalers: Because it takes more than flowers to grow your business.” She also helped the organization reinvent itself after its signature event, the industry trade show, was discontinued says Jim Wanko, WF&FSA´s executive vice president. “Today WF&FSA is a very different organization, but it is successful and bringing value to its members due in great part to (Sorensen's) leadership,” says Wanko.
“I have known Arlene for nearly 30 years, and she is high energy, dedicated and fair,” Wanko says. “I never walked away from a meeting or meal with her without being a better person for the experience.”
In 2004, Sorensen received WF&FSA’s highest honor, the Leland T. Kintzele Distinguished Service Award. She also received the American Floral Endowment Living Tribute and Floral & Nursery Times’ Crystal Star Award in 2000. She was inducted into the Nebraska Florists Society’s Hall of Fame and received the American Institute of Floral Designers’ Award of Merit in 1996.
