Daffodils delivered in style

Bay of Plenty Vintage Car Club members Jim and Kaaren Smylie will be helping to deliver bunches of fresh daffodils around Tauranga this week in their Model A Ford as part of Daffodil Day fundraising.

Daffodils were as scarce as hen's teeth in Tauranga last week, but come Tuesday the city will be awash with them as more than 1400 bunches of fresh daffodils are delivered to local businesses as part of the Cancer Society's Daffodil Day fundraiser.

Friday, August 25, is Daffodil Day itself when more than 70,000 fabric lapel daffodils will be available to buy from schools, community groups, local businesses and more than 230 street collection sites in the Waikato/Bay of Plenty. More than 2500 volunteers will be involved on the day.

But in Tauranga the door-to-door delivery of fresh daffodils is a special event which has been running for the past 27 years.

Jo Matthews from the Cancer Society says the fresh flowers will arrive en masse on Monday and will be turned into bouquets by the ladies from Harbour City Lions before being collected by members of the Bay of Plenty Vintage Car Club and other corporate groups to be delivered to businesses around the city on Tuesday.

'We've got some students from the local colleges coming in to help, loading each of the vehicles with fresh daffodils and a run sheet of their deliveries.

'This will be the third year the vintage car club has supported us and it's worked fabulously. We get such good feedback from people who love having a beautiful car turn up with a young person running in dressed in their best outfit.”

The organisation for the day begins in June with the Cancer Society ringing around Tauranga businesses to take their orders. Each bunch of fresh daffodils costs $35 and some businesses order several bunches.

On the day, more than 1000 deliveries are made by lunch time.

'We run a tight, mean machine on delivery day, but we certainly couldn't do it without [the car club],” says Jo.

This year the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand, which has 36 branches including the Bay of Plenty, has chosen the Cancer Society to be the recipient of a national fundraiser that will see thousands of vintage cars out and about in their communities at 1pm on Sunday, August 27. Each car involved will donate $10 to the Cancer Society.

In Tauranga, the Bay of Plenty club will be doing a ‘country run' and has invited other local car clubs to join in.

'Both the daffodil delivery and the country run are really exciting events and are going to be well-patronised by our members,” says club captain Kaaren Smylie.

All funds raised by the Waikato/Bay of Plenty branch of the Cancer Society on Daffodil Day stay in the area and fund services such as liaison nurses, therapeutic massage and exercise programmes, transport to medical appointments, library services and meal deliveries. There is also a lodge in Hamilton that provides accommodation for people having treatment at the Regional Cancer Centre at Waikato Hospital.

The Cancer Society receives no direct government funding and so relies on the generosity of New Zealanders, says fundraising manager Catriona Findlay.

'With so many charities vying for donations, it can be a challenge to secure the financial support we need to offer the crucial services within our communities.

'We hope that New Zealanders will get behind Daffodil Day again this year and wear their daffodil with pride – whether it's for a friend, a family member or to support important cancer research.”

You may also like....

2 comments

Now there's a thought

Posted on 21-08-2017 08:33 | By Papamoaner

Nice story heading. Now if we could design daffodils to have petals like Sycamore seeds, we could REALLY deliver daffodils in style.


@Papamoaner

Posted on 22-08-2017 07:25 | By Minib

Flights of fancy maybe


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.