Tk'emlúps Tim Hortons restaurant co-owners Joe Quewezance and Mitch Shuter outside their restaurant. Former Tk'emlúps chief Shane Gottfriedson is also a co-owner.
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October 23, 2021 - 9:28 AM
When Tim Hortons held its Orange Sprinkle Donuts fundraiser, a Tk’emlúps shop sold 2,300 on the first day – the highest single-day total throughout the campaign for residential school survivors.
During the week-long campaign, which launched on Sept. 30 – more than $1.6 million was raised across Canada, according to a Tim Hortons press release. The full sale of every orange donut was donated to the Orange Shirt Society and the Indian Residential School Survivors Society.
The fundraiser was launched in response to the discovery of 215 children that were buried at the former Kamloops residential school earlier in 2021.
The owners of the Tim Hortons located close to the former residential school site started looking for ways they could help. Co-owners Shane Gottfriedson, Joe Quewezance and Mitch Shuter connected with other Indigenous franchisees to make the campaign happen.
“We can’t say thank you enough to everyone across Canada who supported this campaign – it’s such an amazing result and we are so proud,” Gottfriedson said in the press release. He is a former Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation chief and former B.C. regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations.
READ MORE: Orange Shirt Day remembers residential school victims
“I also want to thank Tim Hortons and my fellow Tims owners across Canada who stood beside us in launching this campaign and put their hearts into making it such an incredible success story,” Gottfriedson said.
Orange Shirt Day was inspired by Phyllis Webstad, who was excited to wear her new orange shirt to school in 1973. But it was a residential school she was attending, where staff removed her clothes and she never saw them again. That orange shirt was special because her grandma bought it for her.
“Words can’t express the gratitude that I and the Orange Shirt Society feel with the news of the success of this amazing fundraiser,” Webstad said, in the press release. “Thank you Tim Hortons and thank you Canada for all your support.”
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