Times-Age bicycle decorated for Paint it Yellow. PHOTO/FILE
KAREN COLTMAN
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Volunteers Trish Carver and Gloria Morrison were looking forward to a busy week full of daffodils when they opened the Cancer Society’s pop-up shop on Queen Street in Masterton on Monday.
In a space decorated with daffodils, including the huge ‘HOPE’ sign made by Elaine McGill with hundreds of paper daffodils, the society has goods for sale including freshly baked cupcakes, knitted items, carry bags, tea towels and, of course, the daffodil teddy.
It’s the final year the teddies will be on sale because the organisation has committed to selling more environmentally sustainable products, and the bears are already proving popular this year.
Couriers are zipping all over Wairarapa delivering large bunches of yellow bonnets to businesses supporting the Cancer Society’s annual daffodil day fundraiser on Friday.
To keep ‘covid safe’ the society would not be having outdoor stalls with merchandise. This meant volunteers and administrator Esther Tafa have been on the phone to businesses to generate interest and daffodil purchases.
“I spent two days on the phone last week calling up businesses that bought daffodils last year and it is all going very well,” Carver said.
Carver’s husband Clive is a volunteer driver for the cancer society.
He takes patients for treatment to Wellington, Lower Hutt and Palmerston North hospitals as required.
Trish works a few hours a week in the office, Margaret Chittick House on Te Ore Ore Road, as does Morrison.
“There is support for people with a family member with cancer and support for someone dealing with it,” Carver said.
“The big C word is not as scary as you think when there are people to support you.”
Morrison said the volunteer work had made her appreciate her life even more. She doesn’t feel old at over sixty because she knows many people that haven’t made it to that age.
According to the New Zealand Cancer Society medical director Dr Chris Jackson, cancer is the leading cause of death in New Zealand, and the number of people affected is predicted to increase by 50 per cent in the next 15 years.
On Daffodil Day 100 volunteers are setting up at some supermarkets with collection buckets. Last year’s appeal raised more than $50,000 in Wairarapa.
Aratoi has joined Daffodil Week with a ‘Paint August Yellow’ event. The pop-up exhibition with nine art works from nine artists opened at the weekend and closes on Sunday. All money collected from koha [donations] for the exhibition go to the Cancer Society.
Many Wairarapa shops have entered the Paint Wairarapa Yellow event with displays in their windows.
Real estate company, LJ Hooker has let the pop-up shop premises at no charge for the annual fundraising week.
- The pop-up shop is open for the week from 10am to 4pm until Friday, and from 10am to midday on Saturday. daffodilday.org.nz
