Laffan family overwhelmed by generous response to sunflower campaign at their Cashel farm

“Blown away” by the support shown to their sunflower garden fundraiser the Laffan family in Cashel have thanked the public for a most incredible response to their campaign.
€37,899 was raised from donations made by visitors to the Laffan family garden over a period of fifteen days in August.
The sunflower garden at Kingstown, Cashel drew visitors from across Tipperary and all over the country and the campaign has raised significant funds for the Irish Cancer Society and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh.
The fundraising campaign was the initiative of Sean Laffan, who after his own experience of having a tumour removed from his shoulder, wanted to give something back.
His son Niall came up with the idea to plant a field of sunflowers and invite the public to walk the field with the option of making a donation in return.
“This was an incredible experience for the whole family, we were overwhelmed with the response from so many people. It started off slow but then it really took off and we had visitors every day from 11am to 8pm. We were all absolutely wrecked after it but it was worth all the effort,” said Niall.
People spent hours walking in the field of sunflowers, on a site of just under four acres.
It was a relaxing experience for people. They shared their stories and spoke of the great work being done by the two chosen beneficiaries of the campaign.
“Our own family was touched by cancer and we wanted to do something to help good causes. Luckily our father Sean is recovered now. Over the fifteen days we met some remarkable people and people who would have gone through cancer and members of families who lost loved ones to cancer would have shared their stories with us,” said Niall.
Niall researched the nutrient requirements needed and selected the Giant Sunflower variety to fill the four acre field.
Eddie and Mark Hally, local contractors, gave the family a helping hand to set the sunflowers, a process that involved adapting the corn drill by blocking every second pipe to cater for the unique crop.
With the dry spell in June the flowers just shot up and the Laffan family documented the field’s progress on social media and it became an instant hit.
Visitors were invited to take home their own sunflowers with children enjoying the adventure as some of the flowers stretched past seven feet tall.
Queues formed outside the gate to see the field with young and old waiting to get in to see the spectacular crop.
Germinal Ireland, where Niall works, provided the seeds and family friends helped out to market the attraction with Rory Heffernan’s graphic design skills helping to promote the campaign.
Niall’s college friends also lent a helping hand in fertilising the sunflowers that had to be tended to manually as machines would have flattened them.
Asked if they would consider holding a similar event next year Niall said it could not be ruled out at this stage. “We might do something again, at the moment we are just thrilled with how this went and the generosity of people was amazing,” said Niall.
Cllr Declan Burgess said people from far and wide really appreciated the unique nature of the fundraising event created by the Laffan family.