Sarnia residents devoured over 44,000 smile cookies this year.
Tim Hortons restaurant owners in the city and Bright's Grove are reporting that a record $44,461 was raised to support Pathways Health Centre for Children.
Pathways Executive Director Alison Morrison is overwhelmed by this year's generosity.
"When we learned that we were the recipients of this year's smile cookie campaign, I wondered how successful the initiative would be given that we're in the middle of a global pandemic," said Morrison. "So, [I was] shocked to learn that this community surpassed last year's end result."
This year's smile cookie campaign, which raised over $10.56 million Canada-wide, surpassed last year's total locally by over $2,000. $1 for each cookie is donated to named charities.
Morrison said the funds will be directed into programming.
"This money will help us with program enhancements and help us crawl towards that $260,000 fundraising goal that we have. Understandably, we're running into some challenges this year in raising those funds given that we've had to cancel all of our special events to date."
In the meantime, Morrison said Pathways separate campaign to raise $1.6 million to refurbish the Murphy Road centre's therapeutic pool is going strong.
She said they're planning an announcement within the next two months.
Lambton County Developmental Services received $6,300 from cookies sold at Tim Horton's restaurants in Corunna and Wyoming.
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