Meghan Markle Donates Baby Shower Floral Arrangements to Charity

Meghan Markle is giving back following her extravagant New York City baby shower.

The pregnant Duchess of Sussex, currently well into her third trimester, donated the flower arrangements that she and her friends created during the Wednesday engagement to Repeat Roses, an organization that recycles flowers from events and turns them into bouquets for those in hospices, treatment centers, and homeless shelters.

The stunning bouquet arrangements were gifted to pediatric cancer patients at Ronald McDonald House Charities of New York as well as cancer patients at Hope Lodge and men and women receiving care at Unique People Services.

“Repeat Roses was so honored to help petal-it-forward with a baby shower experience for the Duchess of Sussex and her thoughtful friends by creating a ripple effect of kindness across the community,” Jennifer Grove, the CEO of Repeat Roses, told PEOPLE.

The lavish baby shower, taking place at New York City’s Upper East Side the Mark hotel, kicked off with those in attendance – Serena Williams, who footed the bill, co-host Amal Clooney, Gayle King, Abigail Spencer, Lindsay Roth, Jessica Mulroney, Misha Nonoo, Markus Anderson, Daniel Martin, and Priyanka Chopra – taking part in a “flower-arranging lesson.”

Speaking to CBS This Morning, baby shower attendee Gayle King had revealed that the British royal had made the decision to donate the flowers to charity, just as she has done in the past following her May 19, 2018 nuptials to Prince Harry. In that case, the floral arrangements for the wedding were donated to St. Joseph’s Hospice in London.

“I thought that was a very sweet thing. I mean it just speaks to who she is. She’s very kind. She’s very generous, and a really, really sweet person,” King said.

King also gushed about the unique shower activity.

“I hope she won’t mind me sharing this because I’ve never seen anything like this at a baby shower,” she said. “They had flower arranging. They brought in somebody to explain how to arrange flowers. We all each made an individual vase.”

Adding that the baby shower “was a very, very small, private affair,” King revealed that Markle “didn’t open any of the gifts because she wants to do that when she goes – when she and Harry are back together.”

Markle had flown back to the United States earlier this week, but was expected to return to London shortly after the baby shower, where she will reportedly have another small gathering to celebrate the upcoming arrival of her little prince or princess.