There were thousands of smiles shared and thousands of dollars raised during the latest Smile Cookie Week. Linda and Jeff Doerksen own and operate the franchises in Winkler, Morden and Carman.
Morden and Winkler partnered with Boundary Trails Health Centre Foundation for the second time, with Executive Director Shannon Samatte-Folkett setting a goal of 25,000 cookies and $50,000.
“Last year we were pretty green, but we learned a lot,” shared Samatte-Folkett with PembinaValleyOnline prior to the start of the week which ran April 28th through May 4th. “We had an incredible turnout, and we’re excited to see how the community shows up this time around.”
The money generated will support an outdoor wellness space and walking path at the hospital. So how much was raised?
Community shows up big time
"This Smile Cookie Week has just been incredible, and it is more than the cookie," said Linda Doerksen. "Jeff and I are so proudly supporting Boundary Trails Health Centre Foundation, and their plan to build an outdoor space for a wellness area and a walking path. We couldn't be more happy to be able to support that project."
According to Doerksen, $50,182 was generated through Smile Cookie sales at the Winkler and Morden Tim Hortons, surpassing the goal set by Samatte-Folkett by $128, and completely blowing past the 2024 amount raised which was an already amazing $40,000.
"Isn't that incredible?" said Doerksen. "Like, oh my gosh, we just surpassed the goal just a little bit. We were really pushing at the end there. Thank you to everyone. It's just incredible."
Meanwhile, the Carman Tims also had a great week for South Central Cancer Resource, generating $11,197.
"Thank you, everyone"
"I can't thank our community enough," stressed Doerksen. "Our guests have come in and supported our locations so many times, and it's just incredible. To the volunteers that came in, we had so many volunteers that just had a wonderful time decorating. It was just a lot of fun, and a really good feeling to do that. Our staff, our team members, they were on board all week, and they worked so hard to bake cookies, to sell cookies and they just had a wonderful time promoting the whole program as well."
Elsewhere in the region, the Morris Tim Hortons was raising money for Morris YFC/Youth Unlimited, with the Altona location supporting Altona YFC/Youth Unlimited. Jack Wiebe and Sheridan Sawatzky, the respective Executive Directors at the youth serving organizations, engaged in a Smile Cookie selling challenge over the course of the week. According to franchise owner Rupesh Patel, the Altona location raised $18,234, with Morris coming in at $17,311.
"Thank you very much for your support during last week's Smile Cookie campaign," shared Patel in a statement to PembinaValleyOnline. "It would not have been possible without the generosity of our communities and hard work of so many dedicated volunteers."
- With files from Jayme Giesbrecht -