Cancer society ends daffodil fundraiser

The Canadian Cancer Society is exchanging flowers for followers.

In a move to engage more donors and reduce the time and costs involved with ordering, shipping and delivering daffodils, the charity is ending that decade-long flower fundraiser.

It has become too costly and labour-intensive to ship in the daffodils from the West Coast, said Patricia Cleizia fundraising co-ordinator for the Cancer Society in Sudbury. The charity is trying to do more to engage people through social media applications.

"People can text to donate this daffodil month," Cleizia said, noting that last years Daffodil Month brought in $5 million.

"So you can text the word fight to 45678 and you can make a $5 donation by doing that and we will send you a pin."

More convenient

Some consider the change to be an important step forward.

"I just look at it as it's futuristic," said long-time volunteer and cancer survivor Anne Marie Muraska.

"It's like with everything else we have to move forward and this is just one of the ways that they're moving forward I'm not saddened at all it's probably better that way and it's probably more convenient for most people."

In the end, Muraska said, it's not so much about the form the daffodil takes, but the message it symbolizes

"The beauty of the flower and the idea that it is connected to the Canadian Cancer Society is a wonderful thing and it will continue to do so, even in future years."

The daffodil lapel pins will be sold at more than 120 locations around the city throughout April.

Revamping the flower fundraiser means the charity can "ensure the funds we raise through this campaign are put to work directly," Cleizia said.

For its final year, the Cancer society will sell and distribute 18,500 daffodils in Sudbury with the help of more than 60 volunteers.