100 Mile House's Tim Hortons sold the seventh most cookies in all of British Columbia during the Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign last month.
Tim Horton's owner-operator Chad Lecompte said the community came together to purchase 5,968 cookies from Nov. 18 to Nov. 23. This raised $8,962 locally, with half going towards funding local children's trips to camp and half being donated to the South Cariboo Health Foundation.
"The community really blew away our expectations and we were ordering cookies to try and stay ahead. We managed to give everyone a Holiday Smile Cookie that pre-ordered them," Lecompte said. "We were number one in B.C. throughout the whole week right up until the weekend then there was a couple of bigger cities who had big orders on the weekend."
Lecompte said he knew this was going to be a big year thanks to a community-wide challenge he issued. Local businesses were encouraged to buy cookies and challenge another business to match or exceed them. By the end of the week, Lecompte said Save-On-Foods bought the most cookies, purchasing a grand total of 120.
This year marks the second time the Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign has been run and the second time in a row that Lecompte has chosen to give those funds to the South Cariboo Health Foundation.
"It's nice to be able to support the community and see the money stay in the community," Lecompte remarked. "We really appreciate all the support from the volunteers who came to decorate cookies and of course the South Cariboo Health Foundation for helping to get the word out."
Danielle Sabiston, the foundation's public relations and fundraising coordinator, said her organization appreciates this donation, especially as they run the 2024 Starry Nights campaign. She said she was overwhelmed by the community support and how excited everyone was to step up and buy a cookie.
"It's great and I love that half of it goes out to Tims Camps as well. The other half will go towards our Starry Nights to support our project this year for the trauma bay which is the video conferencing system and the automatic medicine dispensing system," Sabiston said.
Outside of the Smile Cookie money, Sabiston said Starry Nights has been doing well this year with donations rolling in consistently. She noted that while donations being delivered by Canada Post are tied up, the receptionist at the hospital has seen more in-person donations to date than in previous years.
Starry Nights is looking to raise $90,000 to fund a new video conference system and an OMNICELL Automatic Medication Dispensing System. While Sabiston doesn't know exactly how much they've raised so far, she believes they have at least crossed the halfway point and raised around $45,000.
"We go to the end of January so we still have some time to get our donations in there," Sabiston remarked. "I'm relieved everything is going well and the community has embraced it."
Anyone looking to donate further to Starry Nights can do so by dropping off cheques or cash at the South Cariboo Health Centre's reception desk, via PayPal by going to southcariboohealthfoundation.com, by mail to Bag 399, 100 Mile House, BC V0K 2E0 or by dropping it off with Sabiston herself by contacting her at 250-706-2101.
