Tillsonburg’s Tim Hortons franchises donate $73,050

Special Olympics Ontario – Tillsonburg was excited to receive a $73,050 donation last Thursday from the 2023 Tim Hortons Smile Cookie campaign in Tillsonburg, presented by Drew and Kaila Van Der Jagt, owners of the north Broadway Tim Hortons franchise, and Mike and Christina Gazley, owners of the Oxford and Simcoe Street Tim Hortons franchises.

“Definitely excited,” said Pat Benoit, Community Coordinator, Special Olympics Ontario – Tillsonburg.

“Oh yes,” nodded Rosie Couture, Special Olympics Ontario – Tillsonburg treasurer.

Some of the funds will go toward supporting local Special Olympics athletes going to out-of-area tournaments. It will also provide new equipment.

“We always need new equipment,” said Benoit.

Tillsonburg Special Olympics has active golf and basketball programs, and this year they added curling. Bocce is gearing up for next year’s qualifiers.

“We didn’t get softball going this year,” Benoit noted. “But we may try cornhole this fall. It won’t be an official sport, but it will be a fun sport. Like bocce, it will be able to accommodate all levels of play.

“We were one of the first communities in Ontario that did bocce, too. Who knows, maybe cornhole will become something big down the road as it grows in communities.”

The May 1-7 Smile Cookie campaign in Tillsonburg set a new benchmark.

“It was great for us, we set a new record for Tillsonburg again, so we’re happy about that,” said Drew Van Der Jagt. “And we had tons of volunteers again.”

“Probably 80 per cent of the volunteers were not Special Olympics related,” said Benoit.

“We had students, police, firefighters…” said Couture.

“And just people off the street who wanted to help,” said Benoit.

“Special Olympics is well supported in the community,” said Kaila Van Der Jagt.

“They’ve been a great for us, they coordinated a lot of the volunteers coming out,” said Drew Van Der Jagt, who thanked the Tillsonburg Legion for use of their commercial kitchen ovens to bake additional cookies. “We were able to bake a few hundred there every day – we’ve got to get creative to keep up.”

“It’s a lot of cookies to keep up with,” Kaila Van Der Jagt nodded.

“It was amazing, the community came together even more than they did in September (2022),” said Mike Gazley, noting they had bigger bulk orders this year and a lot of volunteers, including individuals and families, all donating a couple hours decorating Cookies.

“We had more volunteers than we knew what to do with some days,” Gazley smiled. “The community again came together for such a special occasion and that was a nice thing to see. It was so great with the time slot schedules for volunteers, day by day, store to store. They (Special Olympics) have set the bar for every other organization.”

Last year Tillsonburg’s four Tim Hortons restaurants donated $55,394.42 from its Smile Cookie campaign in September.

“For next year we’ll look for another non-profit organization to support,” said Gazley. “If there’s a non-profit group that’s really in need, they can always contact us. Contact one of the locations and ask to speak to the owner because we’re just starting to brainstorm now, throwing ideas out there.

“We want the dollars to stay here – it’s very important that the dollars stay in Tillsonburg.”

If an organization is not selected for the local 2024 Smile Cookie Campaign, they were still eligible for future campaigns, he added.

“We hope to switch it up every year now,” said Gazley. “There’s a lot of organizations in need.”

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