Rosie’s angels: A finals tradition

By Julie Householder | gargoyle@flagler.edu

For some college students, final exam week is the most stressful week of the semester. This week is marked by back-to-back exams, presentations, projects, and papers, all of which are due during the last couple of weeks.

Rosie Redmond, a barista at the Bistro in the Ringhaver Student center, encourages students. Redmond gives students more than coffee—she hands out handmade angels for good luck during final exam week.

“Everyone needs a little angel to get them through finals,” said Redmond. “They come in so stressed and the moment they get the angel it brightens their day.”

Redmond started making the angels six years ago when she first began working at Flagler College.

“I started them at Christmas time thinking I wanted to give something to a lot of people,” said Redmond. “It ended up being finals week, so now it has become a finals tradition, I do it twice a year.”

This past summer Redmond spent three months making 1,200 angels for students. She always keeps her thoughts positive while making them and refuses to make angels on a bad day.

“No matter what happens I won’t work on them if I’m having a bad day,” said Redmond. “I only work on them if I’m feeling good, so I can put loving thoughts into it, so  you get the loving thoughts when you have them.”

Many students look forward to getting an angel every year. Bryant Vasquez, senior at Flagler College, keeps one of Rosie’s angels clipped to his backpack strap.

“I take it with me wherever I go,” said Vasquez. “It reminds me that everything will be alright.”

After pulling “all-nighters,” Savanna Jones goes to the Bistro to get coffee.

“It is the most amazing thing to come and see a genuinely happy person who genuinely cares about us,” said Jones.

Students often talk to Redmond about how their exams went.

“I’ll get feedback that ‘I got a 100’ or ‘passed my test because of your angel’ and I know it is the work they do,” said Redmond. “I love all my kids and I’m so happy they appreciate it.”