Stratford Daffodil Day ready to run under level 2 restrictions

Raewyn Rooney is chairwoman of the Stratford Daffodil Day committee.

In the lead-up to Daffodil Day on Friday, August 28 this year the Stratford Press is running a series of columns from Raewyn Rooney, chairwoman of the Stratford Daffodil Day committee. In this week's column, Raewyn talks about the plans in place regarding Covid-19 restrictions.

This is our last update before the big day! Covid-19 has once again put a spanner in the works for many planning their Daffodil Day activities. As the Government announced on Monday we are at alert level 2.

Our committee has worked closely with the Taranaki Cancer Society team to make sure as many of our activities can continue on Friday, August 28 and can do so safely for all involved.

It is with regret that we have to announce the disco has been cancelled. We were unable to meet the safety requirements of level 2 for the disco, so have had to make the hard decision to cancel.

Every year, people flock to the Stratford War Memorial centre on Daffodil Day for the annual luncheon. This is a key focus of our fundraising efforts each year and we're delighted that it's able to return for 2020.

This year's event will look a little different now we're still in alert level 2 on August 28. The committee want to make sure that when you come in for the lunch, your safety is a priority.

The lunch will see two separate sittings to make sure we can monitor crowd levels and maintain safe social distancing. The first sitting will be at 12pm, with the second at 1pm. If you are in at 12pm we need you to leave at 12.45pm so we can clean and sanitise the tables, chairs etc before the 1pm sitting.

We apologise for this but we want you all to be safe. We have had to reduce our volunteer numbers so we can keep within the boundaries of safety and 100 people in the hall at one time.

There will be a QR code at the door to sign in and, if you don't have your phone with you, we will have a register to fill out.

Our team will continue to prepare food safely as we have done in previous years and will be serving you at your table.

However, if businesses would like lunch delivered that day we're able to do so as well! Please complete the forms that have been delivered to book yours in. Or we will have packed lunches you can purchase at the hall after 11am.

We will still have the ever popular fresh flowers for sale both in the hall and on Broadway, and I still have merchandise left for sale too.

If you have a concern or a question to wish to ask, please feel free to ring me at 0274636130.

We are so grateful for the community's continued support during this crazy time and I want to thank everybody who has already donated or bought one of our products. We are in unprecedented times and feel very lucky we've been able to do what we have.