Stratford turns yellow for Daffodil Day despite Covid restrictions

Lower than usual numbers at the luncheon didn't stop Stratford Daffodil Day from blossoming into a great fundraiser again this year.

Chairwoman of the Stratford Daffodil Day committee, Raewyn Rooney, says despite the alert level 2 Covid restrictions meaning far fewer people than usual came to the lunch, Stratford people still showed their support for the day.

She says while just 97 people came for the sit down luncheon this year, compared to last year's numbers of 206, the fundraising still went well.

"We haven't finished counting it all up, as some monies are still to come in, but we have a provisional total of $13,534.80 raised already."

Raewyn says with the level 2 restrictions in place it was understandable that fewer people came to the luncheon on the day.

"It's ironic really, that we are fundraising for what we term the C word, and then another c word, Covid, got in the way."

The money raised will go to the Cancer Society and help support all the great work done in the region and beyond, she says.

"We are extremely grateful to our wonderful big hearted community for donating to the Stratford Daffodil Day in whatever way they chose. We also give our thanks to the Stratford business community who make it possible for us to do this."

Raewyn says there were less people coming in to enjoy the soup, sandwiches and cakes this year, but the food didn't go to waste.

"Al left over food was donated to the Kai Kitchen, helping them help others in our community as well."

Merchandise sales had been going well ahead of the day as well, says Raewyn, and at the luncheon itself there was a steady stream of people buying various items from the stalls. The raffles were also popular she says, and well supported both by people buying tickets as well as people donating items for the raffles.

"We also did really well with sales of the fresh daffodils. In fact all fresh flowers were sold by 10.30am on the day so we had to get busy and quickly put together more bunches to sell."