Wednesday was Tim Horton’s Camp Day.
(which for you poor Americans (and others) that dont have them - it is a donut / coffee chain that has made it’s way into our collective cultural hearts and their coffee is both addictive and present at so many memorable events in our lives.)
One day a year at the beginning of summer Tim Horton’s donates all money spent on coffee that day (and that is a lot) to fund camps for underpriveledged boys and girls between 9-13 to go to a camp for 10 days and have a lot of fun, meeting other campers, and generally being able to experience a fun time that otherwise they would not have been able to do. They work with organizations such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters and other children’s groups to select candidate kids to go and basically change their lives.
There are 5 camps now I believe, all over Canada, and even one now in the US. However, probably the coolest part of the experience is that the kids that are selected do NOT go to the camp closest to their home, they go to the one furthest away. So a kid from BC would end up either at the US camp, the one in Ontario, or even the one in Nova Scotia.
Anyway, last year they raised millions, and judging from all the $20 bills I saw in the donation boxes this Wednesday (that themselves that are out all year and always full of change) I can probably safely guess that the goal for this year will be reached.
And though I am not affiliated with Tim Horton’s in any way, all I can say is THANK YOU TO EVEYONE WHO VOLUNTEERED, DONATED, OR EVEN JUST BOUGHT A COFFEE on Wedensday. You have no idea how much it can mean to a child.
You see, when I was 13, I was a Little Brother in the Big Brothers program (worthy cause in itself by the way), and I was selected as one of those underpriveledged kids to go to a Tim Horton’s Camp in the summer of 1989. (Wow, I feel old now)
Me, the little kid from Northern Ontario that had really never been more than 50 miles from home got the chance to fly across the country to Halifax, and then bussed up with a bunch of kids to Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, where the camp overlooked the ocean waters between there and PEI.
It was the time of our lives. We played sports, ate like kings (ribs, steak, lobster (for those unlike me that weren’t allergic), ice cream, the whole bit), and even got in a bit of trouble when some of us boys snuck over to the girl’s side of the camp and a lot of us had our first kisses that summer.
The counsellors were all named funny names like Kermit, or Drip, Tiger, etc. And were all fantastically wonderful people. They even orchestrated a break in to the camp kitchen where we grabbed cookie dough, chips, and ice cream and all that fun stuff. (I know now that it was a planned camp activity, but to us kids then, it was just very, very cool).
Anyway, that experience to this day is still one of my absolute fondest memories. I will never forget how Tim Horton’s Camp changed my life. And so, every Camp Day, please donate or buy a coffee. Throughout the year when you see the box labelled for donations with the Camp logo on it, think about dropping in a nickel, dime or quarter. You’ll never know quite how much it means to some little kid like me that normally would never be given a chance.
