Vermilion Tim Horton’s supports KidSport with over $2,500

The Smile Cookie Campaign at Vermilion Tim Horton’s raised $2,675.10 last fall and a cheque presentation was made today to KidSport Vermilion.

“We really appreciate this. It’s an excellent program that a lot of people rely on, so thank you to Greg [Whitney] and his team for being huge supporters,” said Derek Young, KidSport Vermilion representative.

The applications were down because a lot of sports didn’t occur, but he said the organization serves more than just Vermilion.

Residents within the county and Mannville are also eligible for dance, hockey, and football, as examples. He also said that lacrosse, soccer, and baseball are all indicating they are going to being going ahead this year.

“I’d like to thank the staff for all of their hard work to make this happen. It’s a lot of cookies to make on top of running the drive thru – and to the local and surrounding people for supporting it. We have people in the community that buy dozens at a time as well as repeat customers. It’s been a challenging year, and we couldn’t do it without them,” said Greg Whitney, owner of Vermilion Tim Horton’s.

He hopes to up their numbers during next year’s Smile Cookie Campaign, and surpass the $3,000 mark.

Young commended him for choosing to keep the funds in the community. He suspects as things begin to open up, (with people having more to do and less income) that these funds will become more critical and stretch a little further.

“The Smile Cookie Campaign is our largest donation, and in 2020 the Smile Cookie Campaign looks to have been our only donation for that year,” said Young.

Last year, ten grants were applied for and approved at a cost of $1,765, and KidSport received $2,861 in donations. The previous year, 33 grants were issued for a cost of $7,025, and $7,050 were received in donations.

Most KidSport funding is used for registration fees, but Young said participants were then left scrounging for used equipment. KidSport has now created an additional partnership that allows the opportunity to have new equipment that is the correct size shipped right to the community it’s needed.

Tim Horton’s is now looking forward to Camp Day coming up in June. To apply for a KidSport grant you can visit https://kidsportcanada.ca/alberta/vermilion/