Cookie campaign success boosts Green Shirt Day

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on December 14, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

The Holiday Smile cookie campaign will be putting grins on a lot of faces.
The week-long campaign that ran from Nov. 18-24 raised $37,827.92.
Half of that money will go to support Tim Hortons Foundations Camps while the other half is going to support Green Shirt Day, the Logan Boulet Endowment Fund at the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and southern Alberta and the Canadian Transplant Association.
A giant symbolic cheque was shown Friday at the Tim Horton’s location on Scenic Drive South. Present were owners of all the city Tim Horton’s locations as well as Toby and Bernadine Boulet.
This is the second year the Boulets and their initiative were invited by local franchise owners to be the beneficiary of Smile cookie proceeds, Scenic Drive location owner Dave Lawlor said.
And the Boulets are going to be invited back for a third year. The inaugural Holiday Smile campaign raised $43,000 here and $9.8 million nationally.
“It’s a great program, a great way to fundraise, specifically in our backyard, keeping it local,” said Lawlor.
“A huge high five goes out the Boulet family. They’re the charity of choice that we went with the holiday program. Unbelievable what they put in in effort of organizing volunteers throughout all the stores. It certainly helps everybody execute the program, getting the smiles going out,” Lawlor added.
“We asked them to come back this year. . .we wanted them to come back and be part of it again. It was such an awesome year we had last year. For any program, it’s always kind of neat to challenge yourself if you can do better and learn from that and keep pushing it forward. They did an exceptional job last year joining up with Tims for this event” and it was only fitting to continue the partnership, he said.
“We’re happy to be able to give back, as well and be a part of their success like they’re part of our success,” said Lawlor who thanked the Boulets, their volunteers and the community for supporting the program which sold more than 25,000 cookies in a week when winter weather settled in as it progressed.
For the Boulets, it’s important to help the transplant foundation as well as the endowment fund which is supported by local residents.
“The city of Lethbridge is amazing. They support the Boulet family in all that we do,” Toby said.
“Our community is special, Lethbridge is a special place to be. It’s wonderful,” he said.
Logan Boulet’s organ donations after he succumbed to injuries in the Humboldt bus tragedy has touched Canadians from coast to coast and the Boulets used the death of their son to put in the forefront the need for organ donations in Canada.
Toby – who always wears a Green Shirt Day pin – and Bernadine are often recognized on their travels by people who stop to talk with them about Logan and Green Shirt day.
Photos of Logan are also on the wall of every Canadian Blood Services blood and plasma location.
In the past month, three people have sent Toby photographs of Logan in different places such as Winnipeg and Halifax.
“That message keeps going forward. It’s not just about Logan and the Boulet family, it’s about helping other people and kindness,” said Toby.
In a media statement, Brenden Anderson, manager of Tim Hortons Regional Marketing for Canada West said “I wanted to take a moment to extend my heartfelt gratitude to each of you for your hard work and dedication during the Holiday Smile Cookie campaign. Your tireless efforts and unwavering commitment truly made a difference, and we couldn’t have achieved such fantastic results without you.”

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