This weekend is not the first time McDonald’s Restaurant in Schomberg has held a cookie fundraiser, with the proceeds from all cookie sales going to a local charity.
The last time, it was a fundraiser for We Believe In Abby and the Abby Memorial Park – raising money to create a park in Schomberg in memory of little Abby Eveson, who struggled with a rare congenital heart defect.
This week, cookie sales will support Friends of We Care – a charitable organization, with members in the food industry, that raises money to send kids with disabilities to Easter Seals camps.
McDonald’s owner/operator Rory MacKinnon says he was inspired to choose Friends of We Care by King Township resident Brent Morning, whose annual Golf Tournament for Friends of We Care had to be cancelled this year, due to COVID-19.
“Brent’s a great advocate of Friends of We Care,” said MacKinnon. “He contacted me after we did the fundraiser for Abby’s Park.”
The last cookie sale – selling McCafe Chocolate Chunk, Brownie and Sugar cookies – raised $1,500 over three days, and MacKinnon is hoping for similar community support for Easter Seals kids.
It is, he says, a throw-back to the early days of McDonald’s.
“Easter Seals was one of the original charities McDonald’s was involved with,” he explained. As a young employee, MacKinnon would watch as the founder of McDonald’s appeared on the annual Easter Seals Telethon, to present a cheque on behalf of McDonald’s restaurants and their staff.
“We would watch to find out how much we had raised!”
The cookie sale at the Schomberg’s McDonald’s will continue all weekend, October 16, 17 and 18. While most of the proceeds will go to Friends of We Care, 5 cents from the sale of every Chocolate Chunk RMHC cookie will go to Ronald McDonald House in Toronto – a facility that provides a ‘home away from home’ for the families of seriously ill children, undergoing treatment at Toronto hospitals.
With so many fundraisers cancelled this year, noted MacKinnon, Ronald McDonald House is looking at a $16 million shortfall in 2020.
He and his staff plan to hold other fundraisers for charity in the coming months.
“We’re doing what we can, with the food bank, Abby’s Park, Big Brothers Big Sisters,” MacKinnon said. “It’s how we roll.”
The Schomberg McDonald’s is located at 65 Dillane Dr., just off 27 in the village of Schomberg.
