Jenna Silvey took over as business director at Penny’s Florist when second-generation owner Denna Gundrum retired late last year, handing over operations of the shop her mother Penny opened in 1972.
GREENFIELD —- Jenna Silvey was feeling unsatisfied in her job as a corporate merchandiser when she set out to find something new.
On a whim one Saturday in 2017, she looked up a listing for florists in Greenfield and walked into Penny’s Florist in search of a job.
That’s when fate stepped in, she said.
The shop’s owner, Denna Gundrum, hit it off with Silvey and offered her a job as a floral designer.
Four years later, when Gundrum set her retirement date of December 2022, she tapped Silvey to run the store as business director in partnership with two other long-term employees — operations manager Vicki Hubert and office manager Linda Palmer.
“I couldn’t do it without the two of them. It takes all three of us to run this place,” Silvey said.
The trio spent roughly a year training under Gundrum to prepare to run the store her mother Penny founded in 1972.
“I basically went from being a stay-at-home mom with very little responsibility to having to navigate helping run a business, so it’s been interesting,” Silvey said on a recent afternoon as a steady stream of customers filed into the store the week before Valentine’s Day.
She now spends her days leading a team of designers and sales staff, consulting with brides on wedding flowers and ordering home decor, gifts and other merchandise for the store.
Silvey knew she had big shoes to fill in the absence of Gundrum, a second-generation shop owner and a well-connected lifelong Greenfield resident.
She’s enjoyed getting to know customers and getting more connected with the community she’s called home since 2016, when she and her husband moved to Greenfield from Fishers.
Silvey was pursuing a degree from Indiana State University in Terre Haute when she moved in with her sister in Broad Ripple to work an internship her senior year.
It was her sister who introduced her to her husband, Jason.
“And the rest, as they say, is history,” Silvey said with a grin.
The couple are now the proud parents to two “wild and crazy” boys, ages 2 and 5.
“They’re nuts,” Silvey said with a laugh.
While juggling a life with little ones on top of a full-time job can be challenging, Silvey feels like she’s right where she belongs.
“I am not too much of a planner, so I never had a specific future laid out for myself,” said Silvey, who believes it was fate that led her to first walk into Penny’s on a whim six years ago.
“Denna is all about ‘nods from God’ and faith, and she always thought it was fate that I walked in on that Saturday morning. It all aligned the way it was supposed to,” she said.
Although she didn’t know it back then, Silvey is actually a third-generation florist — following in the footsteps of her grandmother who worked at a flower shop and an aunt who owns a flower shop in Illinois.
Before moving to Florida late last year, Gundrum said she had no doubt Silvey had what it takes to lead Penny’s talented team of designers into the future.
“My goal this year (was) to make sure this business is set up for another 50 years, that the team has the tools and the skills and the talent to thrive, so when I leave I go with a good heart knowing it’s going to continue to blossom,” said Gundrum, who said Silvey “always has a smile on her face and is always willing to help.”
Silvey said she was both honored and excited to help carry the torch for Gundrum, who sold the business to David Stillinger, owner of Stillinger Family Funeral Home.
“I wouldn’t be who I was if it wasn’t for her,” she said of Gundrum. “She’s taught me everything I know as far as design and sales and interacting with customers.”
Prior to working at Penny’s, Silvey did merchandising for the sports team apparel company Lids for three years in addition to doing administrative work for the Greenfield Area Chamber of Commerce in 2017.
Silvey enjoys the fact that the Penny’s staff is multi-generational, with staff members from the age of 18 to 80, with people born in every decade.
“We have somebody here of every generation, which is really interesting because we all learn things from each other,” she said. “We have teenagers that we’re learning things from and they’re learning this from us. It’s just really interesting to have that many generations across the board.”
To get to know the community better outside of the shop, Silvey is taking part in this year’s Leadership Hancock County class which teaches future leaders how to get plugged in and make a difference in the county.
Through monthly class sessions she’s been able to connect with fellow professionals and learn more about the inner workings of Hancock County, from government offices and civic groups to local nonprofits.
While Greenfield may seem like a small town to some, it seems pretty big to Silvey, who grew up in Palestine, Illinois — a town of 1,600 people about 30 minutes west of Vincennes.
“I graduated in a class of 32 people,” she said.
“My mom worked in another town that was six miles away, and if she forgot something at the store she wasn’t going back, because that was just too far,” she recalled with a laugh.
Silvey said that even though Greenfield isn’t a small town compared to Palestine, “it’s a safe, quaint community, and the closest thing I can get to my small hometown. I liked growing up where everybody knows everybody,” she said. “It’s nice to see familiar faces when you go to the grocery store.”
As she continues to get more ingrained in the community, Silvey is content taking life as it comes, doing a job she loves each day and returning to her rowdy crew of boys each night.
