Matches ice cream fundraiser; donates $1,780 to TBBCF
By KATHLEEN EDGECOMB
Despite the cold and rainy weather on Mother’s Day this year in southeastern Connecticut, there were sons and daughters, grandchildren, fathers and husbands, who wanted moms to have ice cream. And the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation benefited with a $1,780 donation from Buttonwood Farm in Griswold.
Kim and Duane Button, owners of Buttonwood Farm, which may be best known for its annual summer display of acres of sunflowers, had pledged this year to give the proceeds from its annual sale of sundaes on Mother’s Day to TBBCF in honor of all mothers.
“Unfortunately the weather did not agree this year,” Kim Button wrote in a letter to TBBCF after the May 12, 2019, event. “We were able to raise $890 this year – well below our usual amount. Cold rainy weather and ice cream do not go together well. We have decided to match the amount raised …”
The note included a check for $1,780.
Amy Caster, director of outreach and development at TBBCF, said she was “blown away” by the Buttons’ generosity.
“The Buttons doubled the funds raised that day. I am humbled by their kindness,” she said.
Kim Button said the crowds were definitely smaller than in previous years. But next year, she said, TBBCF will again be the beneficiary of the annual Mother’s Day fundraiser. And everyone will be hoping for warmer weather.
“No one wants to eat ice cream when it’s cold,” she said.
Caster was one of the diehard ice cream lovers who braved the weather, with a friend and their three children, and ventured to Buttonwood Farm at dinnertime on Mother’s Day. They ran from the car to the ice cream building and back, dodging raindrops both ways. They ate in the car with the heat on.
“Our kids thought we were crazy, having ice cream for dinner in the rain,” she said. “But we said, it’s Mother’s Day, and we get to pick.”