Officials from the Orillia Youth Centre (OYC) were presented an $80,536 cheque on Wednesday afternoon thanks to the annual Tim Hortons Smile Cookie Campaign.
Well over 50,000 smile cookies were sold across 11 local Tim Hortons locations over the week-long campaign, which supported the OYC for the second consecutive year.
More than $160,000 has been raised for OYC over the past two campaigns, a figure executive director Kevin Gangloff said is “absolutely amazing.”
“We’re greatly appreciative. This allows us to do so much more for young people in our community,” Gangloff said. “I will just say thank you to all the staff (and) the centre.”
Gangloff said the funds will be spent entirely on helping local youth, and will help to bolster ongoing and new programs at OYC.
“We were just talking earlier with some other people (about how) we're going to be supporting a young person that doesn't have grad clothes,” he said. “Not that we couldn't do that previously, but this just allows you to keep extending those kinds of opportunities, those small things that you might not have been able to do yesterday that you can do today.
“We can look at some different opportunities for young people moving forward in the summer and … this allows you to go above and beyond,” he said.
Cara Harris, general manager of several local franchises, applauded the work OYC does in the community.
“(Gangloff) has been someone that's great to work with, and Orillia youth is so important,” she said. “We've kind of developed such a great relationship with them, and wanted to do that for another year to help support them for another year.”
Harris said she is “incredibly proud” of how this year’s campaign turned out.
“I think everyone worked really hard this year, (and) the support of the youth centre and all their volunteers, it makes a huge difference,” she said.
