Last week, there was a flurry of icing smiles by the tray for Tim Horton’s Smile Cookie Week, which was a resounding success thanks to the community.
During the special period, proceeds from each cookie sold were set aside for community initiatives. In the Winkler, Morden, and Carman areas, funds raised went to the Boundary Trails Health Centre (BTHC) Foundation and South Central Cancer Resource.
Linda and Jeff Doerksen, the franchise owners of the Tim Hortons locations in Winkler, Morden, and Carman, presented cheques to both organizations along with team members from each location.
‘The total blows me away’
Winkler and Morden raised over $50,000 during Smile Cookie Week, and Carman raised over $11,000.
The number surpasses the goal that Shannon Samatte-Folkett, the executive director of the BTHC Foundation, set for the cookie week at its beginning.
“The total blows me away, and we're so happy. I mean, Shannon and ... all of our team worked incredibly hard to build this number, and we exceeded our goal,” says Linda.
According to Jeff, it was the biggest Smile Cookie week to date for the Pembina Valley locations.
“Our teams and the foundation teams put in a huge, huge effort this year, and we were able to engage our generous communities to end up with that total you see,” he says. “[We’re] very fortunate and deliriously happy.”
Overwhelming volunteer support
For Manoj Vaishay, the restaurant manager at the Morden Tim Horton’s, the week, which brought the community together through decorating cookies, purchasing them, and sharing with friends, neighbours, and coworkers, was a “wonderful experience.”
“I’m always surprised by the way the community supports us,” he says. “I love enjoying that, and we did lots of decorating cookies, but the support coming from volunteers was amazing. It was a really good week.”
Vaishay says he was also surprised and impressed by the staff, who took the opportunity to make elaborate social media posts that engaged the community.
‘We are ecstatic’
For Samatte-Folkett, surpassing the goal she set at the beginning of the week is an exciting development.
“We are ecstatic to receive $50,182 from the Smile Cookie week from Morden and Winkler Tim Hortons,” she says. “It is amazing how many people ordered cookies more than once.”
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Samatte-Folkett says the enthusiasm for Smile Cookie week reflects the all the work of the volunteers and the staff who poured themselves into the project and had fun along the way, too.
“Everybody just kind of rallied around this, and they knew we had a goal, and they helped us achieve it. We're very, very grateful for the community, the teams, the volunteers, and everybody involved in making this happen,” she says.
$11,000 in Carman
Meanwhile, in Carman, a noteworthy total exceeding $11,000 was raised for Smile Cookie Week and presented to South Central Cancer Resource.
“The community really, really came out and supported this program and we can't thank everybody enough from our team, the volunteers, ... the crew from South Central [to] the community ... at large,” says Jeff. “They helped us make cookies, and we got them sold. It was a great year.”
Linda says that this year's Smile Cookie Week is only the pair’s second or third year in Carman, but the town's participation “gets better and better each year.”
“I think as the community [becomes] more aware of what the campaign is and what we're giving the money to, it’s an easy one to come out and help in,” she says. “We even had people contact Jeff and me in the community — business owners, friends — [asking] if they could come and decorate cookies and [help]. It was just amazing.”
According to Jack Pethybridge, the finance chair at South Central Cancer Resource, the donation makes a big impact.
“It’s an important part of our fundraising. As many people may not know, we don't receive any government money, so all the money we spend, we have to fundraise,” he says. “[Smile Cookie Week] is one of our main fundraising programs annually, and we get very good support from our Carman community.”
Pethybridge was part of the team that helped decorate smile cookies throughout the week. He says that CIBC and Access Credit Union staff also contributed to the task, along with passionate Tim Hortons members who showed enthusiasm for the project.
The result was lots of genuine smiles mixed with the iced ones.
“It was lots of fun,” he says.
With files from Robyn Wiebe
