This year’s Tim Horton’s Smile Cookie campaign in Moose Jaw and surrounding area will benefit Heartland Hospice Moose Jaw (HHMJ), a charity dedicated to improving end-of-life care in Moose Jaw and creating a hospice wing at Pioneer Lodge.
The campaign began on Sept. 19 at 4 p.m. with match-ups between “rival” organizations and individuals meant to draw positive attention to the cause.
Representatives from local businesses (including the Moose Jaw Express), the Warriors hockey team, MLAs Tim McLeod and Greg Lawrence, Mayor Clive Tolley, first responders, Prairie South and Holy Trinity school divisions, the Chamber of Commerce, Sask Polytech, and more gathered to decorate cookies in a friendly competition.
“So I am judging today, because I’m the chair of Heartland Hospice,” said Angela Sereda, manager of community paramedicine for Medavie Health Services West. “I’m just ecstatic that Tim Horton’s has chosen Heartland Hospice for the Smile campaign this year.
“It’s been a fantastic year for us, we kicked off our capital campaign in May. The support we’ve seen from the community is unbelievable. To have that amount of buy-in when we’re talking about hospice and end of life care… Not a lot of people want to talk about that, but there’s been a lot of talk and a lot of awareness brought to it, so it’s really exciting.”
Sereda admitted that as a judge, she is biased to first responders and especially to paramedics, but the police and firefighters weren’t shy about taking their own shots at each other.
“It’s always nice to help out, working with community partners like Tim Hortons,” said Staff Sgt. Taylor Elder with the Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS). “The pillar of policing is helping our community, so anything we can do, we’re all about that. We’re looking forward to a fun competition and especially beating the firefighters. That’s always a perk, to us.”
Ian Clark, a captain with the Moose Jaw Fire Department (MJFD), said it was great to see so many people come out for a good cause and hoped the Smile campaign was successful for Heartland Hospice.
“We have our junior firefighter here, he’s signing up for the decorating right now,” Clark said. “He’s been practicing, so I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to beat the police — even though they’re up here (at Tim Horton’s) a lot.”
Paramedic Cari Evenson-Carleton ended up winning the first responders’ battle.
The Tim Horton’s on Thatcher was packed with cookie-decorating competitors and confused customers.
“I was really not expecting this many people!” said Crystal Froese, a Prairie South School Division trustee. “This is going to be fantastic and for a fantastic cause.”
Smile Cookie has raised over $77 million across North America since 1996 and raised a record $12 million last year alone. From Sept. 19 to 25, 100 per cent of Smile Cookies proceeds will support local charities and community groups chosen by Tim Horton’s owners.
