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Students Create Everlasting Roses for Valentine's Day

By Howard Dashefsky

HONOLULU (KHNL) -- On this Valentines day, flower shops and delivery companies work hard to deliver thousands of fresh roses across the island. But not everyone is into fresh roses. While roses are beautiful, they can cost upwards of $100 a dozen for this particular occasion.

If that's a concern, here's something a bit more durable.  If you're looking for something a little more long lasting for this Valentine's day, look no further than the Honolulu Community College campus.

This Valentine's Day, students of the college's sheet metal and plastics program create and sell metalic roses.

Complete with long stems and leaves, the roses are made out of galvanized iron.

And the idea to make them "blossomed" from five years ago, when a student challenged the program's instructor, a retired sheet metal worker, to create a metal rose.

"And I did so he had to buy me a lunch," said Danny Aui, a metal shop instructor.  "And we turned it into a fundraiser and we don't make a lot we just make it for the campus as our own little secret."

But now the secret is getting out. This year students sold every flower they created.

Because they only spent two days making them, they cranked out just a few dozen.

Just like the real thing, these roses require plenty of care and effort.

"We put our hard work and dedication into it so just like how you put into a relationship with that special someone," said student Tyler Roberson.

The best part about these roses is, they'll last forever.

All the roses created by the students were sold for $4 apiece with all the proceeds going back into their program.