THUNDER BAY — For the second year in a row, local Tim Horton’s restaurants have broken their Smile Cookie sales record in Thunder Bay with proceeds continuing to support local organizations.
For the 2022 Smile Cookie Campaign, the initiative raised $80,760, with the total announced on Wednesday.
That eclipses last year's mark by $410, a feat local Tim Horton's franchise owner, Brent Prepp said he didn’t think they would make this year.
“We weren't too sure, this year one of my stores was under renovation so we were down a store,” he said. “But considering we were down a store, we still raised a great amount and [we’re] very, very happy with it.”
Half of the funds raised went to the George Jeffrey Children’s Foundation with the other half going to support the Thunder Bay Professional Firefighters Toys for Tots campaign.
Paul Penna, the chair of the Toys for Tots campaign, said he’s grateful that Tim Horton’s continues to show them support, year after year.
“It's pretty amazing, you know, we've been lucky enough to be recipients for, I think over 10 years now, of the Tim Horton's cookie campaign and it been a wonderful kick off year after year for us,” he said.
“And although we're sharing the proceeds the last few years with George Jeffrey Children Foundation, it's still amazing the numbers continue to rise and we feel very blessed and we're lucky that the Tim Horton's owners choose us year after year.”
Cindy Levanto, the executive director of the George Jeffrey Children’s Foundation, said the organization is always grateful to receive such strong support from the community.
“The fundraised dollars always help to enhance our programs and services that aren't covered by government dollars, like equipment for instance,” she said.
“Even for our holiday campaign we're going to fundraise for a great treadmill with an assisted lifting device; it helps free up hands for clinicians and keeps the client, the child, safe while they're on a treadmill.”
Prepp said the campaign owes a lot of the success to the involvement of the community in supporting the campaign.
“This program is really community oriented, not only do we have the charities’ involvement, but also we have other organizations that they or that support them are out, helping us bake cookies,” he said.
“So, it's really a community event, and the community just embraces it. We have people calling about it, weeks, months in advance, asking when it's going to be, so yeah, it's a great program for the community.”
