Buying a cookie at Tim Hortons next week will support The Salvation Army’s Christmas Kids’ Wish Radiothon and the local high school’s Breakfast Club.
The Smile Cookie Campaign runs a little early this year from May 1 to 7. Residents can buy chocolate chip “Smile Cookies” for a dollar apiece, with all proceeds going to the chosen organization.
Caroline Claridge, Community and Family Services Worker for the Salvation Army’s local branch says the charity has been the recipient of the Smile campaign fundraising for the past few years.
“The Smile Cookie campaign normally happens in September, but they decided to push it earlier this year. The radiothon happens in December and 100 percent of the money raised goes to funding the Christmas campaign, to provide a Christmas for children and families in need in the Parry Sound area,” Claridge says.
Claridge says the Christmas assistance program is open to anybody that wants to apply. She says for singles and couples the organization provides some extra food on top of their normal food bank appointments. As for families with children 16 years and younger, she says they provide toys, gifts, and a Christmas dinner, courtesy of the local Rotary Club.
She says in past years the Smile campaign was able to raise between $3,000 and $4,000 annually, which she says makes a huge difference to the services the Salvation Army is able to provide. “We try and have lots of age-appropriate toys for all the different kids, some gifts and gift cards for teenagers, and we don’t want anybody to be left out or to feel like they can’t give their family a Christmas [celebration],” Claridge says.
She says during next week volunteers will also be out delivering some cookies to different businesses in town.
And speaking of volunteers, Claridge says the Salvation Army is always looking for new bodies. “If anybody wants to volunteer for the Christmas campaign or the radiothon, they can call our office here at 705-746-5391 and we’ll meet with them and see where they might be able to fit,” she says.
“If people are comfortable with being around other people, they can volunteer for the food bank. At Christmas time, there are a lot of different positions. From sorting to packing to actually walking with the clients around our toy room so that they can choose toys for their own children. There’s [also] welcoming people, making tea and coffee. We [also] do a meal every Friday night over at the library and there’s an opportunity there for people that like to cook,” Claridge says.
In addition, she says Harvest Share and the Salvation Army are part of Food Rescue, a national organization that tries to rescue food from grocery stores. “All grocery stores in town are on board with the program, so we have people that go and pick up and sort vegetables, dairy products, and meat. So, you need some muscles for that job, the boxes can get quite heavy,” Claridge says.