About this fundraiser

The February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and immediate refugee crisis had us thinking "What can we do?". When The Rotary Foundation announced donations received into its Disaster Response Fund up to 30th April would be focused on related humanitarian support, we knew it had to be a fundraiser of some sort.

 

The national flower of Ukraine is the sunflower, grown on its central and eastern steppes since the middle of the 18th century, cultivated for its seeds which are eaten as a snack, or crushed into oil, a key ingredient in cooking and an export product of vital importance. Thanks to a generous donation by Vesey’s coordinated by past President Ron Paull, we set about selling 2,500 packets of sunflower seeds.

 

 

  

 

Right off the bat, Rotary Clubs in Burns Lake (750), Whistler (500), and New Westminster (250) took 1,500 off our hands - they paid us $1 per packet to retail locally at $5, collectively raising a net $6,000. Meanwhile, we sold our 1,000 packets at the same $5 each - $5,000 plus the aforementioned $1,500 but, due to characteristic Quesnel generosity, we ended up sending in $7,370 to The Rotary Foundation, along with an additional $1,280 from the sale of sunflower seeds by Station House Gallery in Williams Lake (they heard about our fundraiser and decided to join in).

 

 

Canadian Tire, 9th April 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then, in response to popular demand, we conducted an online/Facebook contest, decided by popular vote - nothing too competitive, simply a tally of Likes and Shares (1pt for a Like, 5pts for a Share) with the top three entrants winning $25 gift cards donated by local business K-Max Games & Videos.

 

Contest entrant Suzan Campbell sent in a number of spectacular pictures - for contest purposes, we forced her to pick just one:

 

 

 

#RotaryResponds