The Cookies that brought Smiles to everyone

Every year, Tim Horton’s holds its Smile Cookie fundraiser, where each local franchise owner can pick a charity in their community that the proceeds from cookie sales will support. It’s a great way to help raise money for great causes directly in our communities!

This year, a group of Edmonton franchise owners decided to try something different. The group agreed to pool their efforts to make a larger collective impact – ultimately choosing Bissell Centre as their charity of choice.

And just like that, this quickly became one of the largest fundraising campaigns we’ve held – raising more than $400,000 in a single week.

Bissell’s Child and Family Supports

Funds from this spring’s Smile Cookie campaign all went to support our Child and Family Supports Program. Last year, we helped more than 1,600 families find their way out of poverty and emergency situations. These programs make a massive impact that people in Edmonton don’t often see.

“It’s things like connections to free pre-natal care, parental supports, or free access to emergency essentials like diapers and formula,” says Jonathan Mackereth, Development Officer with Bissell Centre.

Mackereth explains that Bissell has run a childcare for more than 50 years, serving families in the downtown core. The centre is fully staffed by Early Childhood Education professionals, providing Early Childhood Development for short- and long-term – serving childcare from newborns to six years old.

“There’s are enough challenges finding quality childcare – finances shouldn’t be one of them,” says Mackereth “Lots of parents even drop-off their kids to access other programs like our Employment Services or Financial Empowerment workshops, making it an essential part of our approach to ending poverty.”

Supporting and Celebrating Together

Learning that 147 Tim’s locations all came together to support Bissell Centre, “caught us a little off guard,” Jonathan jokes. “We knew right away opportunities like this don’t come often. We pooled resources into making sure folks knew that buying a cookie would help a child.”

Team members from Bissell Centre could be found at a few different locations around the city during this campaign. Whether it was celebrating with giant cookie cut-outs by the drive-thru, or putting on hair nets and decorating cookies, the teams stepped up to make the week unforgettable.

By the end of the campaign, more than 300,000 cookies were sold – raising more than $464,000! People didn’t hesitate to add a smile cookie to their regular double-double orders – with some businesses and schools pre-ordering up to 1,500 cookies at a time.

“On the first day, we had a manager come out to see us,” Jonathan recalls. “She said in the first two hours of the morning rush, they sold more than a quarter of the cookies they sold for the entire campaign last year.”

We can’t thank the Edmonton Tim’s franchisees enough for all the support they’ve given us. This will directly impact families and children experiencing houselessness and poverty in Edmonton. Thank you for helping us make Edmonton a little bit more of an equitable place to call home.

JOE FM Gathers Winter Clothing Donations

Bissell Centre got a call from J’Lyn Nye from Corus Radio’s JOE FM!   She wanted to know if Bissell would benefit from some donations of warm, winter clothes.   I said, “Of course we could!” as our clients visit our Community Closet for their clothing needs – especially when it gets cold.   When I asked her what had inspired her, she said that she was at home watching the news, when the idea came to her, “I must do something for Edmontonians who don’t have enough warm clothes!”  


One idea, a couple calls, some on-air announcements and several tweets later the Corus lobby was full of donations.

More than ten bags of winter coats, sweaters, gloves, mitts, toques, scarves and so much more were delivered to us.   A single thought from a person with a caring heart created a tremendous movement to provide warmth for those who are cold and often at risk for frostbite.

Bissell Centre is creating a movement to end poverty.   We are partnering with individuals, businesses, schools and anyone who yearns to see all people housed, employed, and living a life where their basic daily needs – and more – are met.

Thank-you to J’Lyn, her co-host Gary, and the myriad of others who made this possible!

Riverbend Junior High – Strong Supporter of Bissell Centre

For the past seven years this incredible school has held a Benefits Concert in support of a non profit organizations. This year the students decided to continue its partnership withi Bissell Centre by holding a Silent Auction and the Concert on March 1, 2012 at the Citadel Theatre. Last year students raised $10,000 for Bissell and this year their goal is to reach $15,000, building on the strong support they already have from the community. We want to also acknowledge Lexus of Edmonton for agreeing to the join the school as the Title Sponsor of this event.
The leadership team at Riverbend Junior High is comprised of students in grades 8 and 9 who want to make a difference in our community. The Benefit Concert has come a long way since its inception. It began in the school’s gymnasium and then moved to the Royal Alberta Museum and is now taking place at the Citadel Theatre.

As an added note, recently Riverbend held a food drive. The results of that effort was over 1,250 kilograms of food being delivered to Bissell Centre, which will greatly help us over the holiday season!

Many thanks to an awesome school with incredible students!

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