Tim Horton’s Smile Cookie campaign raises $97,000 for YMCA’s Centre for Life campaign

Tim Hortons in Belleville and Stirling raised $97,000 for the YMCA Centre for Life campaign as part of the restaurant’s Smile Cookie Campaign.

A cheque presentation was held at the YMCA’s Central East Ontario – Belleville branch location on Tuesday.

Local owners of the Tim Hortons in Belleville and Stirling, including Mary and Mark Hanley, Jamie Smid, and Amit and Rachana Seth, were in attendence to present the cheque to the YMCA.

“The last time we did this was 2022, and we raised $54,000 and an additional 43 (thousand) on top of that is just, it’s remarkable,” David Allen, President & Chief Executive Officer of YMCA Central East Ontario, tells media after the announcement.

“But, you know, I think the key was the volunteers. The volunteers came out… we had over 200 volunteers that came and made the cookies and that says a lot about people wanting to do something for our organization.”

Allen says seeing the jump, from the number raised in 2022 to now, shows the support from the community.

He says the community will benefit from the centre.

“This project is a legacy project. It’s new. It’s something that’s going to be for the whole community. So everybody will be able to take advantage of the new YMCA Centre for Life,” Allen said.

“I can’t imagine the impact that this building, when it’s up, is going to have at the (old) fairgrounds. Just think about it, when you drive by and all of a sudden you’ve got this big, beautiful building there with a with a full parking lot… it’s just going to have such an impact on not only Belleville, but the region.”

The donation brings the amount of money raised during the public portion of the capital campaign to nearly $7 million, closing in on their goal of $9 million.

Allen was asked about the trajectory of reaching the campaign goal.

“When we go out to the community, our expectation is that we will have the smaller contributions, but they will build up quickly as well,” Allen explained.

“We’re heading into the summer months. I think it’ll probably be fairly slow through the summer, once we get the shovel in the ground, then I think we’ll see things take off again.”