To her best friends, she is affectionately known as the “Daffodil Lady.”

Dorothy Bangs, 87, of Vineyard Haven is one of the Island’s most celebrated volunteers, and she was out working hard this week on behalf of the American Cancer Society. Mrs. Bangs—a cancer survivor herself—along with friends and followers, distributed close to 11,000 daffodils, each costing $1. Hopefully, when all the money is collected, it amounts to just what they sought—$11,000.

Mrs. Bangs was at the Steamship Authority parking lot in Vineyard Haven on Tuesday morning awaiting the delivery by ferry of 220 boxes of 50 flowers each. Throughout the day she was helping nine others distribute the flowers. On Wednesday morning she was stationed alone, just inside Cronig’s State Road Market. She wore a “Daffodil Days” sweatshirt.

This week she will begin sharing more of the organizing duties of Daffodil Days with Judy Baynes of Edgartown, a long-time friend. Mrs. Bangs is quick to report that “I am not retiring. I am just sharing more of the duties with Judy.”

“Dorothy Bangs has been a real example of how to live your life with dignity, dedication and caring about others,” said Mrs. Baynes. “She is always so considerate to others, wanting to share the gift.” Eight years ago Mrs. Bangs received the Spirit of the Vineyard Award, an honor given by Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard in recognition of her own spirit and years of volunteer work. She is a regular visitor to Windemere Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, and the Tisbury Senior Center. And last Christmas, she played Christmas carols on the piano for the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Tree of Lights tree lighting ceremony.

A lot of people know her work, but don’t necessarily know her. Anyone who drives down Skiff Avenue and turns onto Lagoon Pond Road, towards town, will see a fish shack sitting on the side of the pond. It is one of the Vineyard’s most remembered buildings. Paintings and photographs of it have appeared in numerous calendars and magazines, as well as on the walls and refrigerator doors in many homes. There is a flower box that usually carries seasonal flowers and decorations. This week it is filled with plastic artificial daffodils (which, naturally, will last considerably longer than the real thing). In the winter, there is a Christmas wreath. Decades ago, Mrs. Bangs told her husband and three sons that she wanted a flower box on the fish shack which sits just below their family home and ever since she started the flower box back then, she has kept it filled with a variety of plantings. Her son Paul owns the little building now.

Mrs. Bangs has a new neighbor to welcome on Skiff avenue. She lives next door to the new site of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum. The fact that the museum will move next door is “wonderful,” she says. She and her late husband have always loved Vineyard history.

She started teaching vocal music on the Vineyard in 1946. She started out as the Island’s music supervisor and taught grades 1 through 12—at that time there were three high schools. Later she left that position to become the vocal music teacher at the Tisbury Elementary School. She retired in 1980.

In 1949, she married Stuart A. Bangs, who worked in his father’s grocery store on Main street in Vineyard Haven. Years later he went on to become the West Chop postmaster and later worked at the Vineyard Haven Post Office. He died in 2008.

She began helping the American Cancer Society as a favor. “I started in the 1980s. Howie Leonard asked me to sit outside of the A& P and sell daffodils. From then on, I decided to help, and do it in other towns,” she said. She said she has been a cancer survivor for 37 years.

On Wednesday, while seated at the booth in Cronig’s Market, Mrs. Bangs said she is always struck by friends’ stories about having to deal with cancer at some time in their lives. “There is always someone who has a story to tell,” she said.

On this day, the temperature outside is in the 70s. Spring is early. Daffodils are already blooming in most people’s backyards. Who would need a daffodil today?

“But that is not the point,” Mrs. Bangs explains to a store patron. Daffodil Days are about raising public awareness about this life-threatening disease and raising money for the fight against cancer.

Mrs. Baynes of Edgartown is, like Mrs. Bangs, a retired school teacher. Mrs. Baynes retired as a first grade teacher in 2010, after 35 years. She recalled meeting Mrs. Bangs the first time. “I was a first grade teacher,” Mrs. Baynes said. “Her last year was my first year.”

Mrs. Bangs is her mentor, Mrs. Baynes said. “She is a woman who loves her music. She loves children. She enjoys her friends.”