This year’s daffodil bulb drive has raised $20,525, allowing allied health staff to continue supporting the health, safety and dignity of clients.
Ten businesses from Trafalgar to Longwarry helped sell 32,000 bulbs, which were donated by Blyth Bros Daffodil Farm. Proceeds go to West Gippsland Healthcare Group’s Allied and Community Health team.
Now in its 29th year, the drive has funded new wheelchairs, walking aids and other equipment, plus social welfare resources such as grocery and fuel vouchers. The impacts are varied and far-reaching with examples including:
- New pressure-relieving devices for patients with limited mobility, improving their comfort and reducing the risk of pressure injury
- Greater variety and challenge in rehabilitation programs with equipment such as a balance trainer and an agility trainer, which uses light patterns to encourage movement
- Food vouchers provided to parents with competing financial demands, ensuring they were able to use their limited funds to pay rent and retain their homes
- Financial support that enabled clients to buy both groceries and essential medications
- Fuel vouchers to ensure new parents could visit their premature babies regularly in WGHG’s Special Care Nursery – this is essential for both the development of attachment and bonding between mother and baby, and the ongoing health and wellbeing of the entire family
- Provision of a washing machine and dryer to launder clothes for long-stay patients who don’t have family to assist them.
WGHG Acting Allied and Community Health Director Sally Wilson said it was impossible to express the depth of her gratitude for the daffodil drive and the breadth of initiatives it supported.
“Every year Allied and Community Health are extremely blessed to receive the proceeds of the Blyth Family Daffodil Bulb Fundraiser,” she said. “The resources we’ve been able to purchase over the years have enhanced the care we’re able to provide across many programs. The benefits are simply too numerous to list them all.
“I’d like to thank the Blyth family for their ongoing support, as well as the incredible local community – both the businesses that sell bulbs on our behalf and the people who purchase them.”
The Blyth Bros Daffodil Farm in Ellinbank is one of Australia’s largest daffodil producers, growing more than 100 varieties on their 350-hectare farm.
This year’s sellers were:
- Down to Earth Garden Centre, Drouin
- Drouin Auxiliary Opportunity Shop
- Drouin Mitre 10
- Baw Baw Food Hub, Warragul
- Baw Baw Garden Supplies, Warragul
- Soul Sisters Café, Longwarry
- That Yellow Door, Warragul
- Town & Country Gallery, Yarragon
- Trafalgar Opportunity Shop
- Bunyip IGA Supermarket
Bags were also sold at WGHG hospital and allied health sites.