Smile cookies are back again this week across the country and are making people “Always Find a Reason to Smile” too!
At every Tim Hortons from September 13-19, 2021, you can buy and even pre-order the happy treats for yourself, friends, family or even a stranger.
The cookies make their appearance annually and 100% of the funds raised from the cookies at the Peace River branch are going to the suicide prevention and awareness organization; Always Find a Reason to Smile.
It’s the third year the organization has teamed up for the campaign and in 2020 they were the top seller of smile cookies in Alberta and one of the top in the entire country.
Casey Szmata, Founder of Always Find a Reason to Smile started the organization in honour of her late daughter Morgan, who took her own life in December 2012. “Our family was very devastated as you could imagine and we were trying to think of ways that we could make a difference.” Szmata says it was also created due of the lack of resources for mental health and suicide in northern Alberta.
They started with holding bereavement groups for suicide survivors, which Szmata says are very different from other groups. “We also try to spend as much time as we can in the community raising awareness; and in our schools.” Always Find a Reason to Smile before Covid-19 restrictions held lunches in schools and Szmata herself does presentation in schools for suicide prevention and awareness for young adults.
The organization can connect people struggling with their mental health to the help they need; whether it be counselling, a doctor, “a lot of people just need a friend” Szmata noted.
Last year over $23,000 was raised during the campaign in Peace River and this year they are shooting for $32,000, which means 32,000 cookies coming out of the oven and into the peace region.
You can see the Always Find a Reason to Smile team this week handing out cookies around the region as well as decorating them on their Facebook page!
-Erika Rolling, Trending 55 Newsroom
