There’s something almost absurd about it, in the best possible way.
You walk into a Tim Hortons, you buy a cookie with a smiley face on it, and somehow that small, ordinary act becomes part of something bigger. That’s what happened in Alexandria, Dunvegan, and the surrounding area during the last week of April, when the community raised $19,575 for Hôpital Glengarry Memorial Hospital through Tim Hortons Smile Cookie Week.
That’s not a small number for a small town. And it didn’t happen by accident.
The campaign ran April 27 to May 3, and while the Foundation had quietly hoped to hit 10,000 cookies sold, what actually matters is the trend. This thing keeps growing. Year after year, more people show up, more cookies get bought, and more money flows back into a hospital that a lot of people in this region genuinely depend on.
Mark Adam, chair of the HGMH Foundation, put it pretty well. “We often say that small communities do big things, and Smile Cookie Week is a perfect example of that spirit in action,” he said. “A simple cookie with a smiley face becomes something much more powerful when a community rallies behind it.”
He’s right. And it’s worth sitting with that for a second, because rural healthcare in Ontario doesn’t get nearly enough attention. These are hospitals that serve people who can’t just hop on a subway to get to a bigger facility. When equipment ages out, when patient care needs updating, the community often has to step up in ways that larger urban centres never have to think about. That’s the reality. So when a fundraiser like this gains momentum year over year, it genuinely matters.
Adam was direct about that: “As equipment must be replaced and updated over time, growing community support helps ensure we can continue delivering quality care close to home.”
One person who’s been quietly central to all of this is Paul Burke, who owns the Tim Hortons locations in Alexandria and Dunvegan. Burke has been selecting the HGMH Foundation as his local Smile Cookie Week recipient since 2011. That’s not a typo. Since 2011. He also sits on the Foundation’s board, so this isn’t just a marketing decision for him, it’s a genuine commitment.
“Every year, we see what is possible when a community comes together,” Burke said. “It is inspiring to see customers, staff, and volunteers all play a role in supporting the hospital we all rely on.”
The money raised will go toward essential equipment and patient care improvements at the hospital. The Foundation is also in the middle of a larger effort, a CT Scanner Campaign that would bring advanced diagnostic imaging to the area and keep residents from having to travel far from home for basic but critical tests.
There’s a version of this story where you just read the numbers and move on. Nineteen thousand dollars, nice, good for them. But there’s another way to look at it, which is that hundreds of ordinary people made a small choice, probably without overthinking it, and together those choices added up to something real.
That’s not nothing. In a time when a lot of institutions feel distant and broken, there’s something quietly hopeful about a community that still shows up for its hospital one cookie at a time.
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