ACS Seeks Volunteers For Daffodil Days

By Jan Howard

The co-chairman of the American Cancer Society Daffodil Days is seeking volunteers to deliver flowers at the end of March. She also hopes to enlist area businesses to sell daffodils.

“We need drivers who are willing to deliver flowers in upper and lower Fairfield County on March 29,” said Ivette Gerics of Newtown, Daffodil Days co-chairman for Fairfield County.

Mrs Gerics is also seeking businesses that would be willing to sell the bright yellow spring flowers on March 28, 29, and 30 in their lobbies. In Newtown, the Newtown Savings offices on Main Street and at Sand Hill Plaza and The Bagel Man will be selling daffodils on those days.

 Bunches of ten flowers are still available for purchase at $6 by calling the American Cancer Society at 800-889-3340, she said. “For $15 a bunch, a gift of hope, you can purchase daffodils that will go directly to a cancer patient in the hospital,” she said.

“Newtown’s representation in support of the American Cancer Society is better this year than ever,” Mark Santeramo of the American Cancer Society said this week. “The way Ivette is getting businesses involved is incredible.”

Mrs Gerics, a Newtown resident for the last year and a half and a full-time mom, has been the co-chair of Daffodil Days for the last three years and has volunteered for the Cancer Society for five years.

“I have many relatives affected by cancer. I had been thinking about volunteering for the Cancer Society, and when my father was diagnosed with lymphoma, I started volunteering,” Mrs Gerics said.

She said that every year she knows more people who are diagnosed with cancer. “I dedicate my volunteering to them every year,” she noted.

As a co-chairman, Mrs Gerics is responsible for increasing sales of daffodils and getting volunteers to sell, bundle, and deliver them. “Throughout the campaign, I keep in touch with about 1,000 volunteers,” she said. “For each company I contact, there is one contact person or sometimes two or three. We’ve got hundreds of companies.”

On March 28, she will oversee about 40 people at a distribution center where they will bundle the daffodils and separate them by company and delivery routes.

A member of the Newtown Junior Women’s Club, Mrs Gerics enlisted her fellow members to help out with Daffodil Days. “Each one of us has something we’re involved in, and we support each other’s causes,” she explained.

Newtown Junior Women’s Club member Charlene Calandro said she was happy to help out. “My father is one of ten, and eight of his siblings died of cancer. I wanted to help out as much as I could. It’s a good cause.”

Mrs Calandro said she has two relatives who are colon cancer survivors.

Mrs Gerics said Fairfield County’s Daffodil Days is one of the largest fundraisers in the state of Connecticut for cancer.

Checks continue to be received in April, she noted.

Cancer is the number-one health concern of Americans today. More than 1,500 people a day die from the disease. This year, it is expected that 16,000 Connecticut residents will be diagnosed with cancer.

The American Cancer Society’s goal is to reduce cancer mortality rates by half, lower the incidence rates by a quarter, and improve the quality of cancer patients’ lives by the year 2015.

The annual Daffodil Days is a fundraising effort that helps to raise awareness and fund American Cancer Society research as well as education programs and patient support services.

Trained cancer information specialists are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 800-ACS-2345 to answer questions about cancer and link callers with resources in their communities. The www.cancer.org Web site includes a cancer resource center containing in-depth information on every major cancer type. The new Cancer Survivors Network provides support to cancer patients and their families by connecting with others who have been touched by cancer. It is also accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 877-333-HOPE or through the Web site.

 To volunteer for Daffodil Days, to purchase bouquets of daffodils, or for information about cancer, call 800-889-3340.