Despite a slumping economy, Ken & Sandy’s No Frills saw its most successful fundraising event to date for The Heart & Stroke Foundation.
By asking customers for $1 donations during a promotion at the grocery store, over $3,200 was raised as part of Heart Month activities.
“It’s very promising to see people still giving, despite the current economic situation we find ourselves in,” said Sara Felske, area manager for The Heart & Stroke Foundation of the Wellington Dufferin Region. “We see it as a great sign that people still recognize that there are needs to be met – especially now.”
The store opened in 2003, and in 2005, the owners decided to participate in a Heart Month fundraiser by selling paper hearts. In seven days they raised $1,176. Ken and Sandy Jellicoe made a personal contribution to bring the total to $1,500.
The following years saw the store raise an additional $4,800 with the Jellicoes adding a personal contribution to round up the amount of the donation. In 2009, despite the economy, they were able to raise $3,500 – the foundation’s largest Heart Month workplace fundraiser in the Wellington Dufferin Region, and the store’s most successful event to date.
“People were very willing to support the Heart and Stroke Foundation with a $1 donation – especially with all of the money they saved through the Dollar Days promotion,” said Sandy Jellicoe.
Since 2005, No Frills has raised $11,300.
“We would like to congratulate No Frills on this tremendous accomplishment,” said Felske. “It’s inspiring to see family-owned companies like this make a commitment to their community year after year, and with amazing results.”
For more information about The Heart & Stroke Foundation and Heart Month, please visit www.heartandstroke.ca.
Did you know?
Every day this year, seven Wellington-Dufferin residents will be hospitalized because of heart disease.
Less than 50 years ago it was unimaginable:
– that individuals could survive and thrive after a heart attack;
– that the impact of a stroke could be reversed if caught in time;
– that we could prevent heart attacks and strokes in people at high risk before they happened; and
– that heart defects in babies could be repaired and they could live a healthy active life.
At the Heart and Stroke Foundation we dared to imagine …and through life saving research achieve all of this with the generous support from communities. We have come a long way, a 70% decrease in deaths due to heart disease and strokes, but we still have a long way to go.
We still dare to imagine:
• That all strokes and heart disease will be stopped before they happen
• We dare to imagine that with your help we will make heart disease and stroke history
Support of Heart & Stroke Foundation fundraising will be helping people right here in the Wellington-
Dufferin community. Here are just a few of the initiatives that are taking place:
1. Through the Heart & Stroke Restart a Heart, Restart a Life Campaign we were able to place
Automated External Defibrillators in 35 new sites in the Wellington-Dufferin Region and train 8 staff members at each of these sites
2. Through our Community Advocacy Fund, the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph “In Motion” project was chosen as a grant recipient of $25,000 in funding to support their advocacy efforts to increase the level of physical activity of children.
3. We are proud to support a research team right here at the University of Guelph.
4. We will providing all schools, Big Bike Captains and leadership volunteers with a CPR Anytime Kit that allows families, friends and the general public to learn the core skills of CPR for adults and children in just 20 minutes using their own personal kit. The kit contains everything needed to learn basic CPR, and skills can be learned anywhere, from the comfort of a family home to a large community group setting.
5. The Foundation developed a model of excellence to provide equal access and delivery of stroke care across the province. This led to the establishment of Regional and District Stroke Centres in the region (Brantford, Kitchener, Hamilton, Mississauga, Niagara) which provide the latest in stroke care and preventative medicine to the almost 240,000 residents of the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph area.
