Daffodil Days

I love flowers
anyone that knows me
knows this...

Spring is also my favorite season

watching everything wake up

poking their little heads out of the soil

seeing if the coast is clear

the splash of yellow

that daffodils bring

are like rays of sunshine

or happy little faces

rising up to greet the day

loving these ones

simply gorgeous

yummy!

they also mean

a time to give

The History of Daffodil Days

The Canadian Cancer Society's Daffodil Days began in Toronto in the 1950s.

A group of Canadian Cancer Society volunteers organized a fund-raising tea and decided to decorate the tables with daffodils. The bright, cheerful flowers created an atmosphere that seemed to radiate hope and faith that cancer could be beaten.

Soon these gatherings came to be known as Daffodil Teas.

Jackie Brockie, a volunteer who also worked at Eaton's, supported the idea of Daffodil Teas and arranged for Lady Eaton to host a Tea in the store. Seven hundred women attended.

Another volunteer, Lane Knight, arranged for restaurants to give part of their receipts to the Society on the opening day of the residential canvass in 1956. Canadian Cancer Society volunteers were on hand at local restaurants to give patrons a daffodil when they paid for their meals as a token of appreciation. The sight of so many daffodils being carried around the city created interest. When some recipients tried to pay for the flowers or make donations, the Society quickly realized that the sale of daffodils would generate additional revenue.

Canadian Cancer Society volunteer Fran Shannon headed the team that planned the sale of daffodils on the streets of Toronto the following year. An anonymous donor paid for 5,000 blooms to be flown from British Columbia where the growing season starts earlier than in Ontario.

The daffodils were an instant success, raising more than $1,200 the first year. The idea was adopted by other provinces across Canada as well as the American Cancer Society.

Today the Canadian Cancer Society is the world's largest purchaser of daffodils and the growers in British Columbia must arrange their plantings to accommodate the Society's spring demand for live blooms.

In late March and early April, Canadian Cancer Society volunteers are busy delivering and selling bright, yellow daffodils to help raise money in support of the fight against cancer.

The daffodil is the Canadian Cancer Society's symbol of hope. The bright, cheerful blooms are sold every year and mark the beginning of Daffodil Month.

This years Daffodil Days run from

April 12th - 18th

Get out and support this cause

xo