A packed house at a recent Dreamlift Day in Penticton. The yearly event throughout the B.C. Interior drew thousands of customers every year.
(SHANNON QUESNEL / iNFOnews.ca)
December 01, 2014 - 3:57 PM
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – Wendy’s Dreamlift Day is no more.
The charity behind the annual event has confirmed what Infonews.ca reported Friday, that the new owner of the Wendy’s restaurants which took part, are "shifting the focus of their fundraising efforts to benefit other charities.”
For the last 20 years, Wendy’s restaurants in the area donated all funds raised from one day of sales to send children with severe physical disablities or life-threatening illnesses to Disneyland.
Over $1.4-million dollars has been raised since 1994.
Tristan Michelle Joseph with the Sunshine Foundation of Canada goes on to say in an email to Info News, “Sunshine will continue to fulfill dreams for kids in the region and wishes Park Inland Restaurants’ Wendy’s success as they provide support for other deserving charities.”
Wendy’s Dreamlift Day was created and fostered by Inland Restaurants' majority owner John Tietzen who, until 2012, owned several Wendy’s franchises in the Penticton, Vernon, Kelowna, West Kelowna and Kamloops.
Marilyn MacDougall of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department told Info News on Friday they had been told the Dreamlift won’t happen in January 2015.
“We won’t be coming up this year,” she said. “They are not planning on doing a Dreamlift per se. They will be doing something but probably for another charity. We are disappointed because we felt it was a really good partnership but we understand.”
Calls to the new owner Ken Park with Park Inland Restaurants’ Wendy’s have gone unreturned.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca or call 250-491-0331. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014