Financial troubles will put the Daffodil Festival’s traveling float in the garage for the rest of the summer, casting further doubt on the future of the annual Grand Floral Parade.

The Daffodilians, the organization that runs the festival, is in the red right now by about $24,000, said Ron Simchen, president of the group’s board. That takes into account the board’s decision Monday to cancel the local festival’s participation in 11 out-of-town parades later this summer.

The change took effect this weekend, with the Daffodil float dropping out of the Lakefair Parade in Olympia.

The Daffodilians typically sponsor groups of Daffodil Princesses to appear at between 25 and 30 parades around the Northwest every year. But there isn’t enough money this year to pay for gas, meals and overnight travel expenses for the princesses, who represent 23 high schools throughout Pierce County.

“Basically we’ve got enough to keep our office open through the end of the year, but after that we don’t know what we’re going to do,” Simchen said.

He said the festival needs to raise at least $60,000 by the end of the year to ensure it can put on a parade in 2009.

The parade attracted at least 55,000 spectators this year on its routes through Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner and Orting.

The News Tribune first reported the festival’s financial struggles in an April 6 story published before the 75th anniversary of the event. Since then the problems have only deepened.

They’re partly tied to an expected $35,000 donation from the Emerald Queen Casino that has yet to come in. But individual donations are also down, leaving the organization about $100,000 short of where it should be.

THE COSTS

The cost of putting on the 2008 Daffodil Festival was about $225,000, and the board expects the cost to rise to about $260,000 next year.

“When school starts we try to do all of our major fundraising, but it just didn’t work this past year,” Simchen said.

Each trip to out-of-town parades costs the Daffodilians between $2,000 and $3,000, so canceling the remaining visits will save between $22,000 and $33,000.

The float has already made 13 stops at festivals such as Cornucopia Days in Kent and the Rhododendren Festival in Port Townsend. A diesel truck hauls the float, making travel costly as gas prices have increased, Simchen said.

“It’s not unusual to go through 100 or more gallons every time we take it out, and you only get five to six miles a gallon,” he said. “We may have to give up on the idea of a traveling float.”

This year’s Daffodil Princesses are disappointed they won’t be traveling to any more parades, said the festival’s queen mother, Carrie Swanlund, who coaches the girls for their public appearances.

“The first time they travel to Port Townsend or Spokane where they are representing their town, they see what kind of impact they can have on communities besides just their own,” Swanlund said. “They of course want the tradition to continue for another 75 years.”

FALLING DONATIONS

The festival’s financial records show that its donations have declined steadily during recent years. The Daffodilians received $187,000 in total contributions in 2004, but only about $171,000 in 2005 and $161,000 in 2006.

Daffodilians spokeswoman Susan McGuire said unless people start chipping in money, next year’s Grand Floral Parade could be in jeopardy. The same can be said for the festival’s Daffodil Royalty Program, which awarded $52,000 in scholarships this year.

The Daffodilians have already gone through $50,000 of their $100,000 reserve fund, she said.

“We’re not in a state to be doing a whole lot of anything right now,” McGuire said.

PROBLEM WITH PAPERWORK

Puyallup Tribe spokesman John Weymer said the Emerald Queen Casino’s donation hasn’t been distributed because of paperwork issues. He said the tribe will ask the Daffodilians to refile paperwork stating the value of the casino’s sponsorship, and if the filings pass muster, the tribe will proceed with the donation.

That paperwork includes a breakdown of advertising benefits the casino received from serving as a primary sponsor of the festival, such as the number of radio, television and sign advertisements in which the EQC name was mentioned.

The casino should have received that paperwork already, but hasn’t, Weymer said.

“What we’re trying to do is figure out what happened,” Weymer said. “After that, it’s not an especially long process.”

The Daffodilians’ board is considering other cost-cutting measures for next year, such as no longer televising the Grand Floral Parade and possibly reducing the number of Daffodil Princesses allowed per school district.

LITTLE BY LITTLE

The cost of televising the parade has risen from about $20,000 to $28,000 in the past few years, Simchen said, and this year a record number of high schools elected princesses to compete for the title of Daffodil Queen. There were 23 girls the festival had to sponsor and costume. Adding three princesses in the last two years increased the festival’s yearly costs by up to $15,000, Simchen estimated.

Donations by major municipalities were also down this year, and board members expect that trend to continue. Pierce County already gave word that it would be cutting the $15,000 it donated in 2008 by 25 percent, a decrease of $3,750.

The Daffodilians hope small donations from the general public can help make the difference.

“It’s not necessarily that we’re looking for one big donor – every nickel counts,” McGuire said. “It’s those hundred-dollar commitments and the passion of people in our community that will keep us going.”

Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058