ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – It’s any flower lover’s dream, a field full of sunflowers ready for picking. Wilda Martinez visited the field in Albuquerque earlier this summer. 

“I took my husband and my little one, and we had a blast,” said Wilda Martinez, a Pay It 4ward nominator. 

She wasn’t just there to enjoy the sights and smells, she was there to help the man who planted the field, Perry Kesler. 

“This was a huge, huge project for him to do,” said Martinez. 

Martinez met him when he unexpectedly showed up to her work, Hospice de la Luz, with a bouquet in hand. 

Turns out, he was on a mission to visit every assisted living facility in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho with the same surprise.

“I thought, you know, who would think about the assisted livings where, you know, people live, and sometimes they’re forgotten about. So it touched my heart,” Martinez said. 

It made such an impression, she went to volunteer herself.

“His mom’s favorite flower was a sunflower, and he really did it in honor of his mom. He touched people’s lives that people don’t think about, you know, and not only for the patients that live there, but for the staff that take care of them,” said Martinez. 

The effort included picking thousands of flowers to deliver to 150 facilities through his nonprofit, Love 1 Another.

“I thought this guy deserves to be recognized because it was a lot of work for the field that he planted. He put a lot of work and effort into it,” said Martinez. 

So it was time to Pay It 4ward.

Watch the video above for more.