Longtime daffodil chair steps down

Lois Atchison to take over spring cancer fundraiser

By Susan Larson | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, March 8, 2008

Daffodil Days, a well-known and possibly favorite fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, garners money for local patient services, education and research by selling — what else? — daffodils.

For 10 years, Ardyce Fjestad has been filling the world with yellow, co-chairing Daffodil Days for West Otter Tail County. She claims this will be her last year to head the event, but admits “I’ll still be around to help out.”

“I really don’t remember how I got started,” Fjestad said. But she knows why she’s stuck with it. “It’s fun working with all the people,” Fjestad said. “Everyone is so upbeat and willing to help.”

Co-chairing Daffodil Days with Fjestad this year for the first time is Lois Atchison. Unlike her predecessor, Atchison has no problem recalling how she got her start.

“Ardyce asked me,” she laughed.

“It’s time to turn it over to a fresh face, someone with new ideas,” Fjestad said.

Atchison is seeking a co-chair for 2009.

“It’s not a hard obligation,” she said. “It’s really only about four weeks scattered through the year. That’s all the commitment. And no one hasn’t been touched by cancer.”

“I think that’s why all the volunteers say yes,” Fjestad said. “I know who to talk to (at businesses for presales). I don’t even have to finish the sentence and they say yes.”

Presales begin in January, where employees from local businesses volunteer to sell daffodils to co-workers. Presale flowers will be delivered to about 75 locations in the Fergus Falls area Tuesday.

“When I first started,” Fjestad said “we only had half as many for the presales.”

Back then, there were only presales and the weekend sale. The program has since expanded to include many options for presale customers to choose from besides the regular bunch of 10 stems: A bunch and a vase; “Dainty Daffodils;” Gift of Hope (daffodils in a vase that can be ordered anonymously for cancer patients); a sunshine bouquet; and “A Bear and a Bunch” (daffodils with a special collector ACS Boyds Bear).

On Friday, March 14, and Saturday, March 15, volunteers will sell Daffodils at Service Food and Sunmart from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., or until all of the flowers are sold Saturday. A bunch of daffodils (10 stems in a bunch) can be purchased for $8.

“These flowers will still be good at St. Patrick’s Day and Easter,” Fjestad said. “Just keep them in the fridge and don’t cut them off if you want to save them for Easter.”

“The biggest challenge,” Atchison said, “is the unknown, if we’re going to sell them all.”

Which, the co-chairs said, has never really been a problem.

Volunteers integral to success of daffodil days:

Much of the success of the local American Cancer Society Daffodil Days can be attributed to volunteers, said co-chairs Ardyce Fjestad and Lois Atchison.

The daffodils will be delivered Sunday via semi to the Wal-Mart parking lot, where local volunteers will pick them up and take them to Posie Inn Floral and Greenhouse, where volunteers wil gather Monday.

Daffodils will be counted, put into bunches and placed in plastic bags. Presale bunches are placed in piles according to where they are to be delivered.

“Within two hours Tuesday morning, volunteers will have them all delivered,” Fjestad said.

There are 32 boxes of flowers with 50 bunches of 10 in each box for presale orders. About 350 bunches will be sold during the weekend sale. During the weeked sale, between the two locations, 20 volunteers will work five shifts each day.