The Smile Cookie campaign is returning to local Tim Hortons locations later this month, and all proceeds will support the Orillia Youth Centre for the second year in a row.
Smile Cookies will be available beginning April 29, and local Tim Hortons franchisees hope the community can help eclipse last year’s fundraising total of $86,872.
“I think they’re just a great, great cause, and they do so much great (work) for the youth in Orillia,” said Orillia Tim Hortons owner Jen Adams. “The youth are our future, so we want to try to get involved in that as much as possible.”
Volunteers from the youth centre and the Orillia Lions Club will help bake and decorate cookies for the seven-day campaign.
“We always love having a lot of these volunteers and seeing them in the restaurants, so having (the) community join is really great, and we’re really excited for this year’s Smile Cookies,” said local Tim Hortons manager Cara Harris.
Youth centre officials were thankful to be selected again as the recipient of the Smile Cookie campaign.
“It’s amazing, utterly amazing,” said executive director Kevin Gangloff. “I was floored, and I’m still floored.”
All of the money raised through the campaign goes directly to supporting local youth, he said.
“All of it goes right back into supporting youth programming and opportunity — everything that we do — and it allows us to build up opportunities that we can offer youth,” he said. “It doesn’t go back to pay our salaries, our rent; it goes back directly to support youth.”
With a wide range of programs offered to local youth ages 11 to 17, Gangloff said the funds not only support a variety of existing programs but also help provide additional opportunities.
“(It helps) add extra pieces, but also just supports the pieces that you have because we have to fundraise and brand for everything that we do,” he said.
“Even right now, we’re setting up for our formal wear giveaway. If we don’t have stuff that’s donated, we can help youth with getting formal wear for their grads, or getting new shoes or haircuts, and all those different pieces.”