Pulling through: Dal staff and faculty donate to Canadian Cancer Society despite damaged daffodils

There may be fewer yellow flowers in the Dal community’s gardens this year, but generosity is blooming as colourfully as ever.

For many years, Dal faculty and staff have participated in the Canadian Cancer Society’s annual daffodil fundraiser. Volunteers across the university collect orders for flowers that get delivered just in time for spring and the Cancer Society’s awareness-raising “Daffodil Month” in April. The campaign is hugely successful at Dal: in both 2014 and 2015, the university had the highest workplace order of daffodils in the entire province.

This year’s campaign was set to be another clear success — that is, until the entire order of daffodils arrived at the Cancer Society’s Nova Scotia division damaged in transit. With the flowers unfit for sale, the fundraiser was cancelled.

While the Cancer Society and Dal’s campaign both offered refunds, they also asked contributors to consider keeping their donations with the Cancer Society, given how important the fundraiser is to the organization. The Nova Scotia division risked losing up to $250,000 in revenue, which would have a significant impact on its services, programs, advocacy and investments in cancer research.

In the end, the Dal faculty and staff came through, contributing $5,130 to the campaign across all four campuses. That’s almost as much as was raised last year with daffodils, and nearly 70 per cent of the original campaign target. It also was significant enough for Dalhousie to once again rank as the province’s top workplace contributor.

Making a difference

“I am humbled by and proud of the Dalhousie community’s generosity,” says Maya Churbaji, Dal’s coordinator for the daffodil campaign, who works as research and operations coordinator with Human Resources. “We were heartbroken when we learned about the damaged flowers, but everybody pulled together and donations kept pouring during the campaign.”

She credits the efforts of the more than 70 department champions across all four campuses: “I am grateful to each and every one of them.”

Staff at the Canadian Cancer Society extended their gratitude to the Dal supporters who stood by their side during a difficult time and helped raise a “tremendous” donation.

“We are overwhelmed by the sheer kindness of our supporters that chose to leave their donations with us regardless of the daffodils being damaged,” says Margaret Schwartz, who helps organize the Nova Scotia daffodil campaign. “We apologize for any disappointment and hope you will consider supporting the campaign again next year.”

Thank you to all who made this year’s Dal campaign possible:

• Maya Churbaji (Campaign Coordinator)
• Amanda LeBlanc (Truro Campus)
• Shelly Simpson (Sexton Campus)
• Ryan McNutt (Communications Advisor)
• Martha Skerry (Treasurer)
• Trisha Aylward
• HR volunteers who committed to counting and sorting the flowers — even though their services were not needed
• A special thank-you to Jackie King in Financial Services who kept the money safe and secure during the campaign