Orillians who popped a top or two over the summer months and donated their empties to The Beer Store’s bottle drive helped raise an incredible $42,133 to support Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital.
This fundraising campaign was part of The Beer Store’s company-wide initiative to raise funds for local hospitals and food banks across the province. In Orillia, that started as a small initiative and morphed into a large donation to Soldiers’ COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness Fund.
“The community got behind the idea and ran with it,” said John Jones, District Manager, The Beer Store. “The two Orillia stores managed to raise a significant amount – more than other communities with more locations – which certainly says a lot about the generosity of our Orillia customers.”
The money raised from the bottle drive will have a big impact on the health of the community. The funds will be put towards fighting the pandemic long-term by purchasing COVID-19 related supplies and equipment as the needs arise.
“Early on, we started receiving phone calls from the public asking about the bottle drive,” said Kaitlyn St. Pierre, Development Officer of Annual Giving with the OSMH Foundation. “People were excited to be able to help out just by cleaning out their garage and donating their empty bottles. We’re so grateful to the Atherley Road and Old Muskoka Road stores for putting on this drive and to our community for responding in such a huge way.”
The Beer Store’s fundraising campaign ran from April to Labour Day and raised $2.3 million across Ontario.