Smile Cookie week in High River broke records last week for the most amount raised and the number of cookies made.
Cathy Couey, fund development & communications officer with the High River District Health Care Foundation (HRDHCF), was thrilled with the support from the community.
"What an incredible group of volunteers and the Tim's team to help us. The roughest estimate is about $19,870 raised for local health care."
The money will be spent at the High River Hospital and the Nanton Community Health Centre to help support children and seniors.
"This year, it's targeted to a couple of patient family-centred care initiatives focused on littles [children], to our seniors living in long-term care. One of the exciting tools we're going to bring to the recreational therapy team in long-term care is called LifeLoop. And it's an annual subscription to an electronic platform that offers a range of electronic therapy content. It provides games, travel videos, music, Trivial Pursuit, mindful exercises... all providing engaging and cognitively stimulating and emotionally supportive content for the residents through these activities."
"At the other end of the spectrum are the kids who are at the hospital, especially in departments like the lab, diagnostic imaging, and ER, as you can imagine. It's stressful and sometimes boring for kids to be waiting for whatever their needs are. So, part of these proceeds will help us elevate those fidget, distraction and reward-type toys. So, the staff there is so thrilled to be able to elevate what they can offer the kids that visit their department.
The team of volunteers decorated almost 10,000 cookies that Tim Horton's staff at the two High River locations were able to sell at $2 each.