The crew at Westbrook’s Flower Shoppe in Wallaceburg are ecstatic with the turnout of their ‘Sunflower Special’ fundraiser, which raised funds for Olivia Formosa and Preslie Hensel.
“It went incredibly well,” Eleena deBakker, manager of the store, told the Sydenham Current.
“We feel bad because we ran out, but we had over a 1,000 sunflowers and they were sold out before 9:30 a.m. So it was amazing.”
deBakker said Westbrook’s started doing mixed bouquets after the sunflowers ran out, but that didn’t slow down the procession of people coming into the downtown store.
“It was just amazing to see everybody come together,” deBakker said.
Olivia was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour that is grade 3.
She is set to undergo chemotherapy and will be traveling to the U.S for radiation treatments.
Learn more about her story and donate to her crowdfunding campaign, here.
Preslie was put into a medically induced coma and has been on life support since Friday, August 11.
To learn more, and to support Preslie’s crowdfunding campaign, click here.
deBakker said Mark Persyn, c0-owner of the shop, wanted to do something to help both young girls.
“Mark two weeks ago said that he wanted to do something really special for these little girls and incorporate flowers that make people happy and brightens peoples days,” she said.
“So we just figured this was a good way to do it. So all the proceeds are going to them. People are donating on top of the flowers. Everything is going straight to them.”
deBakker said Westbrook’s was selling the bouquets for $10 each.
If anyone missed out, they are taking rain checks, deBakker said.
A final tally of the bouquets sold and the dollars raised are expected to be announced next week.
– Photo credit: Aaron Hall
