As promised to their friend and colleague, Lee Page, staff at Kurtis’ No Frills is selling paper daisies this week to raise money for cancer care at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (KBRH).
“Give You A Daisy” memorial campaign starts today (March 9) and runs until March 19. Shoppers at the Trail No Frills have the opportunity to donate $5 for a paper daisy at the store tills. By writing their name and phone number on the back of the daisy and dropping it into a raffle bin outside the store, donors are entered to win a draw for door prizes.
In the three years since the fundraiser began, the daisy campaign has raised over $43,000 for oncology care at KBRH.
This is the first year, however, that No Frills staff is running the campaign without Lee at the helm.
Lee Page died on July 10, 2020.
He was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the fall of 2019. Lee knew he didn’t have much longer on this earth when the Trail Times talked with him in February of last year. This was a week before Lee, and No Frills staff, were readying to launch his third fundraising campaign in memory of his wife, Kim Page, who succumbed to cancer in January 2018.
Lee wasn’t sad he was nearing his own end. In fact, he was looking forward to re-uniting with the love of his life, wife Kim, in heaven. He truly believed and he was ready, almost.
First, Lee had one last job to do.
And that was to raise as much money as possible in the third daisy campaign. This was a time when the pandemic was taking hold of the province, but through it all, the No Frills 2020 fundraiser safely garnered $16,520 for the hospital.
Lee was also at peace because he knew that once he was gone, the memorial campaign would carry on at Kurtis’ No Frills. That’s because his friend and boss, Kurtis MacGillivray, owner of the Trail No Frills, assured Lee that store staff would hold the fundraiser in perpetuity on March 9, the date of the Page’s wedding anniversary.
“When I first came to Trail, Lee took me under his wing even though he was under mine,” MacGillivray told the Trail Times. “He really showed me what the town is about, how caring the community is, and what we could do for the community.”
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there won’t be live music or dancing outside the store during the campaign, like past years. While paper daisies will be available at the tills, for anyone who wishes to give but does not want to go to the mall, there is an option to call the KBRH Health Foundation and donate over the phone via credit card.
“For Lee, it was all about paying kind with kind,” MacGillivray reflected. “And Lee did such a good job keeping that promise with his wife through the daisy memorial campaign. Now, the No Frills staff is doing their best to carry on the legacy by doing as much as we can for the community,” he said.
“And the greatest part of this is what Lee always said, ‘One small act of kindness can change the world when it’s multiplied by many.'”
Read more: Daisy Campaign raises $16,520 for KBRH cancer care
Read more: Buy a daisy support cancer care at KBRH
Read more: Daisies help Trail man grant wife’s last wish
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