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Smile Cookie campaign raises nearly $59,000 for Airdrie Health Foundation

This year’s campaign had over 65 volunteers, who put in 207 hours of help collectively to put frosting shaped as a smiley face on the cookies and package them up for consumers to purchase for $1.50 each.
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Michelle Bates, representatives from Tim Horton's, and a team of Smile Cookie campaign volunteers pose with the cheque for Airdrie Health Foundation outside of the Main Street Tim Horton's in Airdrie on May 31.

Michelle Bates was all smiles as she accepted the cheque for the proceeds raised in this year’s Smile Cookie campaign, which was once again on behalf of the Airdrie Health Foundation.

The Smile Cookie campaign took place from May 1 to 7 at participating Tim Horton's franchises in Airdrie, CrossIron Mills mall, and off the highway near Crossfield.

This is the third year the local health foundation has partnered with Tim Horton’s, and this year's week-long campaign saw the largest amount of money fundraised to date.

At a cheque presentation and photo op at Airdrie's Main Street Tim Horton's location last Wednesday, Bates – the executive director of the Airdrie Health Foundation – said this year’s campaign was able to raise $58,976, which is over $9,000 more than last year. She confirmed that all proceeds will support the Airdrie Health Foundation.

This year’s campaign had over 65 volunteers, who put in 207 hours of help collectively to put frosting shaped as a smiley face on the cookies and package them up for consumers to purchase for $1.50 each.

Bates said it is exciting to see the growth of their organization. Formed in 2011, the group has focused on advocating improved health care services within the city.

“We’re a grassroots group that started just advocating for better health care just over 12 years ago,” she said. “Becoming a charity and now being able to establish ourselves in the community the way we have and have such a big organization to support us is just amazing.”

Health care is something that everyone can relate to in some form, Bates said. She added that residents came out to support them by purchasing Smile Cookies because the money is staying within the city to help fund the health care system locally.

Proceeds from this year’s Smile Cookie campaign will support three different programs to help with additional training for pediatric nurses through the PALS program (Pediatric Advanced Life Support), urgent care equipment, and the Pregnancy and Beyond program, which supports new mothers and their infants.

Listening to feedback from frontline staff, the foundation highlighted what they needed most to help improve health care. They shared their top priorities with Tim Horton’s, who looked forward to helping with additional training for nurses and supporting the Pregnancy and Beyond program.

“These priorities come to us through our frontline staff,” Bates explained at the Wednesday photo op. “They come to us with items, equipment, education – things that are needed to fill in gaps and we brought that to Tim Horton’s to say, ‘These are our priorities.’”

Franchise owner of the Tim Horton’s on Airdrie’s Main Street, Willi Lobe, said the 2023 campaign was successful. He touted the support from the community who purchased the cookies and the volunteers who took the time to help out.

“We had a really great year,” he said. “We had so much support from the community and the volunteers. It was our most successful year yet and we really enjoy doing it every year.”

Lobe said they look forward to participating in the campaign in the future – which will surely bring another smile to the face of the Airdrie Health Foundation members.

—With files from Scott Strasser/Airdrie City View

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