One fundraiser leads to another at the Canadian Tire in Prince Albert.
The popular Toffifee fundraiser recently added another treat, with the company that produces them donating $30,000 worth of Werther’s Original candy. All funds raised from the candy sales go to the Rose Garden Hospice.
Owner and local philanthropist Malcolm Jenkins did an interview on CBC Saskatchewan about last year’s fundraiser, which then appeared nationally. The story brought enough attention to the Storck Company, which produces the candy, that they offered Jenkins another opportunity.
“They said, ‘what can we do to say thank you? So I said, ‘you can make a nice donation to the Hospice and a cheque would be very nice with lots of zeros and the lady said let me get back to you. It’s made in a lovely craft sort of place in Germany. I have been there, and she came back and said we would like to give you 3,000 boxes of Werther’s hard candy, which is a great candy and hugely popular.”
The company sent pallets and pallets of free two pound bags of Werther’s to help fundraise for the Rose Garden Hospice. Jenkins said it’s been easy to keep the support rolling in.
“All we have to do is pile it at the front and put a nice sign up saying this is what it does,” he explained. “We will charge $8.88 so the customer gets a deal. So far we have sold I think something like 700 or 800 and it’s only been a couple of weeks.”
The candy are also available at Party City, which is owned by the same company.
‘We put it in there as well. It’s a smaller place but there is a sign saying thank you to them and why not they are giving us $30,000,” Jenkins said.
In 2020, for the second year in a row, the Rose Garden Hospice was chosen as the recipient of the Toffifee fundraiser this past Christmas season. From November through January, the store sold almost 30,000 boxes of candy.
“We got an idea where we want to support the Hospice because it’s a great cause and we are working with them in other areas too. So we said let’s say we give a dollar a box for every one that’s sold and we sold them all and we cut them a cheque for $26,000 or more and this year we gave $30,000,” Jenkins said.
This year, there is an added bonus flavour—dark chocolate and regular. Jenkins expects this year’s promotion to be even better.
“We work very hard at it,” Jenkins said.
“It’s become part of our personality. It’s fun and it works and it’s good for business. It drives traffic, if somebody comes in to buy a box of that they will buy hopefully 3.2 items per customer,” he explained,
The Rose Garden Hospice is going to officially break ground on July 16 and also recently received $30,000 in an anonymous donation from Ontario. Jenkins supports the whole idea of a hospice because of what it does for the medical system.
“A hospice is a terrific idea, the logic of them is there are people who can’t get into the hospital because there are no beds, so day surgery like a knee replacement gets put off because you don’t have any beds. Well there are folks up in palliative who are there basically for an extended period of time, and would be much better in a hospice, so the move to a hospice and that bed is freed up and all of a sudden you are reducing waiting times and a hospice is about half the cost per bed to run as the hospital is, so it’s a win win,” Jenkins said.
When November rolls around the Toffifee fundraiser will expand again, and Jenkins will continue donating to the hospice.
“What I have done is bought 20,000 of the original one and 10,000 of the new one. We are going to have it at Party City and add it incrementally, there so the hope is to raise $30,000,” Jenkins said.
