“We tried that and it went well but it was impossible to transport the sunflowers without damaging many of them, so we came up with the idea to pick your own.
“Each woman diagnosed with breast cancer in the wider Gisborne area receives an $800 package from us upon diagnosis.
“Gisborne Terrier Race Against Time provides the packs to Gisborne Hospital's oncology department, ready to be handed to anyone diagnosed with breast cancer.
“The packs — valued at $800 — are made up of $500 worth of vouchers for participating Gisborne businesses (health and wellness, daycare, home help, gyms etc), plus a $100 petrol voucher, books and updated information.
“Money raised goes into helping us keep a continuous supply of packs. The funds collected so far from the sunflowers will fund eight more packs.”
Ms Stovell said the community response was amazing even though they relied solely on social media and word of mouth as a means to advertise.
“We are going to continue the fundraiser again this coming weekend, and there are another lot of sunflowers coming on in February. We are planning a sunflower festival around those ones.
“We invite families to come out and take family portraits among the sunflowers and just enjoy being there before picking a bunch to take home.”
The Witters said they were excited to host another fundraiser for Gisborne Terrier Race Against Time at their Woodlands venue.
“This wonderful team of dedicated women give hugely of their time to this amazing charity.
“It was great to see families come and pick their own sunflowers and it was good to turn a negative into a positive.
“There was a lot of community support given to this fantastic local fundraiser.”
This weekend's pick your flower event is from 10am to 4pm each day at Woodlands, 1121 Back Ormond Road.
