Teams at Canadian Tire locations around the country are here to make life in Canada better year-round, but many go the extra mile so that the holidays can be brighter for those who are most in need. For Ken Turnbull, the Associate Dealer of the Canadian Tire in High River, AB (located at 1204 5 St. SE), a toy drive and food bank fundraiser he recently hosted turned out to be one of his biggest community success stories.
For eight years, Ken and his wife, Lori, have been getting businesses and customers together to help out around the holidays. This year’s Salvation Army Toy Drive was organized through a partnership between High River Canadian Tire and the Okotoks Ford dealership. Others, including the local Tim Horton’s, Cargill, the Foothill Kinettes Club, and High River’s RCMP and fire department, pitched in to make the two-week fundraiser impactful.
The fundraiser culminated at the store on a Saturday and included a day of hot chocolate and cookies, tacos-in-a-bag, time with Santa, and live local radio station coverage. Ken and Lori put a challenge out to the community to raise as much money and donations as possible and even announced that they would personally match cash donations up to $15,000 total.
The event turned out to be wildly successful. There were so many donations that the Salvation Army's cargo trailer had to be used to collect all the toys. At last count, more than $40,000 had been raised, and an additional $5,000 had been donated to Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities.
“Our whole team is so proud,” said Ken. “To bring in $50,000, that’s a pretty good day for our community of 12,000 people.”