MS Society of Oxford carnation campaign set to bloom
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After travelling more than 5,000 kilometres, thousands of flowers arrived in Woodstock Monday morning just in time for the 37th annual Multiple Sclerosis Society carnation campaign.
Their two-week trip involved three countries, a plane and a transport truck.
For many years, Glenn Hofland, president of John G.Hofland Ltd. in Mississauga, has imported carnations for the MS Society.
A few years ago while in Columbia on a scouting mission, he told a sales representative for Flores Funza, a Columbian flower farm, he was looking to fill a large order for the MS Society back home in Canada.
Because the sales rep knew someone affected with the debilitating disease, there was an eagerness to help.
Every year since, thousands and thousands of carnations of all kinds have crossed more than 5,000 kilometres from Bogata, Columbia, to the tables and flowerbeds of people in more than a 100 cities and towns in Ontario, including several communities in Oxford County.
“It’s MS. It’s an ugly disease. This kind of a fundraiser is fun,” Cathy Miller, a volunteer of the MS Society of Oxford, said Wednesday afternoon after receiving a shipment of hundreds of boxes of flowers.
The flowers will be distributed through workplace and school campaigns – and outside variety and grocery stores and other shopping outlets on Friday and Saturday – just in time for Mother’s Day.
This year’s carnations were cut between April 24 to 26. They were flown from Bogata, Columbia, to Miami, Fla., on April 29. From there, they were boarded into trucks and were driven up through the U.S. to Canada, arriving at Hofland in Mississauga between May 3 and May 5.
Volunteers then trimmed the stems of the flowers before sorting them into bunches and placing them in travel boxes.
“They take quite a trip,” Miller said.
Each year, the MS Society of Oxford makes a gross total of about $24,000 from the carnation campaign. The completely volunteer run society uses the money to provide MS patients and their families with educational programs, support, equipment (such as wheelchairs, scooters, porch lifts, walkers and bathroom equipment) and special assistance funding.
Carnations sales and the MS Walk held last weekend are the two major fundraisers for the society. The walk raises about $75,000 each year.
Being sold this year are mini carnations bouquets for $6 or two for $10, large mixed bouquets $20, potted mini carnations $6 and single blooms $1.
Canadians have one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world, with an estimated 55,000 to 75,000 currently living with the disease and 1,000 new cases every year.