Lethbridge Tim Hortons donating Holiday Smile Cookie proceeds to Green Shirt Day initiative

Left to Right: Toby Boulet, Paige Crozon, Blaine Hyggen and Charleen Davidson.

Tim Hortons is once again selling its Holiday Smile Cookie, and this year money from Lethbridge locations is going, in part, to Green Shirt Day.

The annual sale of the Holiday Smile Cookies sees 100 per cent of proceeds donated to local charities.

This year, 50 per cent of the money from Lethbridge locations goes to Tim Hortons Foundation Camps, while the other 50 per cent is divided up between the Logan Boulet Endowment Fund, Green Shirt Day and the Canadian Transplant Association.

Logan was one of 16 people killed in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018.

Shortly before the crash, on his 21st birthday, Logan signed his organ donor card to honour his mentor and trainer, University of Lethbridge rugby coach Ric Suggitt, who died in 2017.

It was a decision that saved the lives of six people and started the Logan Boulet Effect, which inspired more than 150,000 Canadians to become organ donors within two months.

"We told Tim Hortons last year that we’d do it for one year, and it was so successful they asked us again, and we said sure," said Toby Boulet, Logan’s dad.

"It’s an amazing charitable fundraiser and we hope that other groups will step up next year and help out, because there's lots to do and lots of fun."

Nearly 50,000 cookies were sold in Lethbridge last year, with more than 100 volunteers taking time to decorate each holiday cookie.

Tim Hortons says Holiday Smile Cookies raised $9.8 million across the country in 2023, with Lethbridge generating $43,000.

"It’s all built to develop and build awareness of organ and tissue donation, and to have people have that conversation and to think about it," said Bernadine Boulet, Logan’s mom.

To kick off the campaign this year, Mayor Blaine Hyggen, Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwest Alberta executive director Charleen Davidson and Olympian Paige Crozon tried their hands at cookie decorating.

"My hometown is Humboldt, Sask., so I have a special connection to the Boulet family and the community," said Crozon.

"(Cookie decorating) is way harder than I thought… my arms got a workout so not the usual gym routine training like this past year for the Olympics, but it was an incredible opportunity to be apart of it."

The 2024 Holiday Smile Cookie campaign runs until Nov. 24.