Tim Hortons spreads smiles

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

Local Tim Hortons locations are stepping up their decorating skills to raise funds for a local non-profit organization during this year’s annual Smile Cookie campaign.
For the second year in a row, the three Strathmore Tim Hortons restaurants are teaming up to sell smile cookies to raise funds for the Strathmore Family and Community Support Services (FCSS).
Smile cookies sell for $1 each between Sept. 17-23 with all of the proceeds going towards the Strathmore FCSS.
“I chose (FCSS) myself. I looked around town and I’ve been in town for five years so I’m just watching who’s doing the most for social services in town. FCSS is a great organization and they do a lot in town and we appreciate the work that they do,” said Kevin Korpi, Tim Hortons location owner.
For several years, Korpi donated the smile cookie funds to the Calgary Health Trust. Last year he decided to donate the funds within Strathmore. Last year, between the three restaurant locations in Strathmore, $6,580 was raised from the sale of 6,580 cookies sold within one week – nearly 1,000 cookies per day.
“We were really surprised and honoured to receive it (money),” said Linda Bernicki, coordinator with Strathmore FCSS. “Then we heard that they selected our agency for a second year so we are even more excited this year.”
To mark the start of the Smile Cookie campaign, Kevin and Tracy Korpi invited representatives from Strathmore FCSS and officials from the Town of Strathmore to their Edgefield location to decorate the signature chocolate chunk cookies with blue eyes and a cheerful pink smile.
Last year, the funds were used for FCSS’s community grant program. Although no allocations have been made for the donations this year, the organization is considering splitting up the funds through some of the different programs they offer to target a variety of different areas within the community, including child, youth and family programs.
“This will help support child, youth and family programs here in Strathmore, which are very well received by the communities, so we’re very excited for that,” said Aia Hughes, child, youth and family program supervisor at the Town of Strathmore.