Canadian Cancer Society daffodils spoil before annual fundraiser

There will be no Canadian Cancer Society daffodils delivered in Nova Scotia this spring due to a spoiled shipment of flowers that were supposed to be sold in the annual fundraiser.

Barbara Stead-Coyle, the national vice-president of annual development with the Canadian Cancer Society, says when staff started unpacking 33,000 bouquets they realized all were wilted and mouldy. 

"We opened and inspected every single bunch. We hoped we'd be able to salvage enough for the pre-sale customers," she said. 

"All the daffodils had either opened, and had either opened and spoiled or opened and not able to be sold." 

She says the society is now in discussions with its insurance broker to try to recover costs, but it will be too late to organize any replacements. 

The daffodils were flown in from British Columbia in boxes that included thermometers, but Stead-Coyle doesn't know exactly where the problem started. 

"All we can deduce at this point is that somewhere on the transportation process they were not properly stored in cold storage," she said. 

"We know that when they're shipped and kept cold, there's never an issue."

The campaign brings in about $300,000 annually and the society says organizations and businesses already bought half the daffodil bunches through pre-sales. 

Instead of delivering flowers, Stead-Coyle says staff have been calling customers and offering refunds, but they also hope groups will turn that money into donations.

The daffodil campaign accounts for five to seven per cent of the charity's total revenue in Nova Scotia. The money supports programs such as the Lodge that Gives accommodation and Camp Good Time, Stead-Coyle says.

"We're obviously devastated as an organization," she said.