By Megan CrepeauThe Daily Northwestern
A few weeks remain before Evanston gets genuinely good weather, but Northwestern graduate students and the American Cancer Society want people to get a head start on spring and donate to cancer research at the same time.
Kellogg School of Management students have joined forces with the North Shore branch of the American Cancer Society to sell daffodils as part of Daffodil Days, a national fundraiser for cancer research and awareness.
Through Daffodil Days, the philanthropically minded have purchased bouquets, bulbs and other merchandise for more than 30 years in 35 states, according to the society’s Web site.
The flowers are symbolic in many ways for the American Cancer Society.
The daffodil is “a symbol of hope, renewal and, to the American Cancer Society, the promise that one day cancer will no longer threaten the lives of those we love,” according to the American Cancer Society’s Web site.
Second-year Kellogg student Brian Bunch took bouquet orders on Thursday in Kellogg’s atrium. He and three other NU business students help the American Cancer Society at Kellogg as part of the Kellogg School of Management’s Business With a Heart program.
Orders for merchandise are taken in January and February.
In addition, participants can purchase a “Gift of Hope,” which uses a donation of $20 to $80 to give a cancer patient a bouquet of daffodils. Flowers will be delivered to the North Shore area on March 19.
“It’s really different than most fundraisers you hear about,” said Ryan Kuhn, income development representative for the North Shore branch of the American Cancer Society. “It’s actually an event that the people directly see the smile that they put on a cancer patient’s face.”
For Bunch, this is about more than volunteer hours – the daffodils are personal. His father-in-law died of leukemia, and two of his grandparents died of cancer.
“(Daffodil Days) is an organization that means the most when it comes to how it’s affected me,” he said.
Daffodil Days will take orders today at a booth in the atrium from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and during the evening. The program will accept donations until Wednesday.
The North Shore branch of the American Cancer Society hopes to raise $20,000 this year, said Kuhn, who estimated that it already has raised about $15,000.
The money will go to fund cancer research, support pro-research public policy and keep the American Cancer Society’s information and education efforts up to date.
The American Cancer Society hopes that sbecause March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, Daffodil Days also will raise awareness of colorectal cancer.
Colorectal cancer is the third-most-common type of cancer and accounts for 10 percent of all cancer cases.
The fundraising appears to be paying off, Bunch said.
Of all the American Cancer Society events Kellogg helps with, “Daffodil Days are the most popular,” he said.
Reach Megan Crepeau at [email protected].
