Smile Cookie proceeds go to long term care
November 17, 2021, 10:37 am
Sierra D'Souza Butts, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Proceeds of this year’s Smile Cookie sales at Moosomin Tim Hortons went to the long-term care department at the Southeast Integrated Care Centre (SEICC) in Moosomin.
“It was definitely a record breaking year for us in Moosomin and even across Saskatchewan, it was fabulous. We finished top 3 in the province and broke some records for sure,” says Greg Crisanti of Tim Hortons.
“All of the credit goes to our charity of choice, the group of ladies and volunteers that they had come out. You know it’s a busy time for us, during Covid of course we are short staffed and dealing with a lot other logistics, but without the support from the volunteers, who were out here making cookies, we wouldn’t have been to sell them for sure.”
The recreation coordinator for the long-term care department Sara Gustafson, says because of Covid, volunteers are not able to help out at the long term care in the SEICC.
“Because of Covid we haven’t seen our volunteers for months on end, so we reached out during this time. Between them and the recreation staff, we would have three to four volunteers, plus recreation staff, down here in the morning and in the afternoon in shifts for 7 days a week,” says Gustafson.
“We also had some grade 10 wellness high school students who had to put in volunteer time, so they reached out to help us out as well.
“The $15,934 will go to the recreation fund. When we have recreational programming there’s a cost to almost everything. So if it’s exercise equipment, if it’s craft supplies, and we are fundraising for our own facility handivan. So some of this money will go towards those needs.”
Crisanti says they choose a different charity every year to donate their proceeds to and is happy they chose the long-term care center this year.
Gustafon said that residents at the home were happy to be involved in the campaign.
“The coolest thing about the smile cookie campaign, is that it was the first week the residents of the long-term care could come out and go on outings. So this was their first outing in how many months, and it was to come here to enjoy Tim Horton’s coffee and watch us decorate, or have them decorate themselves,” she said.
Crisanti said he was very happy with this year’s results from the smile cookie campaign and was happy to make a difference.
“You can’t put a feeling to the difference made but it feels pretty good. Our team is proud, it’s something to look forward to next year and we’ll keep trying to break some records.”
