Daffodils provide ‘burst of sunshine’ for cancer patients

CEDAR RAPIDS - 'These flowers are from Gems of Hope and the community that loves you.”

Those are the words Avery Moomey, 9, repeated time and time again on Wednesday morning as she delivered blue vases filled with yellow daffodils to cancer patients and survivors at the Helen G. Nassif Community Cancer Center, St. Luke's Radiation Center and Physicians' Clinic of Iowa Medical Pavilion in Cedar Rapids.

Moomey, a fourth-grader at St. Matthew's School in Cedar Rapids, took the day off from classes to help deliver daffodils as part of the annual Hope Blooms fundraiser put on by Gems of Hope, a Cedar Rapids-based nonprofit organization that offers gifts of jewelry mounted on inspirational cards to cancer patients.

This year's fundraiser brought in about $63,000, according to Gems of Hope officials.

'My grandma Joan had lung and breast cancer and I helped take care of her when I was 6,” said Moomey, who wore a yellow dress with giraffe prints to pay tribute to this year's Hope Blooms mascot - Jasper the Giraffe. 'I wanted to help fight cancer because I don't want anyone to have cancer and fight alone.”

Doug Rosenbaum, 59, of Olin, was among those receiving both a vase of daffodils and a stuffed giraffe on Wednesday.

'I was very pleasantly surprised,” said Rosenbaum, who was diagnosed with lung cancer last August and was in Wednesday morning for chemotherapy. 'It means a lot when people are thinking of you; all the thoughts and prayers, it really means a lot.”

This is the fourth year Gems of Hope has run the annual daffodil fundraiser, said Kathy Hughes and Rhonada Weber, who serve on the committee that organizes the annual fundraiser and conducts sales of the flowers.

Hughes, 64, of Cedar Rapids, said most of the sales are done through local businesses during the month of January. Volunteers connect with those businesses, which in turn distribute daffodil order forms to employees. This year, the Nassif Community Cancer Center was the presenting sponsor for the program.

Daffodils also can be ordered through the Gems of Hope website, gemsofhope.com. Prices range from $10 to $75.

Weber, 60, of Walford, explained the donations are 'double anonymous.”

'The donor doesn't know whose going to get the gift and the recipient doesn't know who sent it,” she said.

Sandi Murphy, 44, of Marion, who is a cancer survivor, said receiving daffodils was a nice surprise.

'Especially it being a windy day, it was nice to get a little burst of sunshine,” she said. 'They're very hopeful.”

June Smith, 78, of Marion, also a cancer survivor, said it was extra special receiving the daffodils from Moomey.

'Seeing a little one like that brightens my day even more,” she said.