The 2019 Tim Hortons Smile Cookie Campaign is back! During the week of September 16, all of the Kingston stores will once again be directing their campaign week proceeds in support of Kingston Health Sciences Centre’s (KHSC) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Thanks to the generosity of participating locations in the Kingston area, the commitment of staff and nearly two decades of enthusiastic community support, Tim Hortons has donated more than $700,000 to purchase life-saving equipment for KHSC, much of it benefiting the Kingston General Hospital site NICU.  

“Because of our generous community that is committed to supporting Smile Cookie, there is a groundswell of local support for our NICU,” says Stacey Wolfrom, Program Operational Director, Women and Children’s Health, KHSC. “This cumulative impact of this campaign, raising funds and awareness, year after year, is helping so many more babies thrive at earlier and earlier gestations thanks to the new technologies that make better outcomes possible.”

In 2018 the Smile Cookie campaign broke the six-figure mark and raised more than $108,000 for KHSC’s NICU. University Hospital Kingston Foundation (UHKF) volunteers will once again help to promote Smile Cookies at participating Tim Hortons across Kingston the morning of Monday, September 16.

About KHSC’s NICU
The NICU at the KGH site is the only high-risk obstetrical centre for southeastern Ontario. Kingston is one of only five communities in the province to offer sophisticated, innovative high-risk neonatal care and is part of a provincial network of specialized neonatal services, with 14, Level 2 and eight Level 3 (higher acuity) beds. The KGH site cares for babies from Kingston and region, as well as from across the province when other NICUs are full. More than 400 newborn babies are admitted to the NICU each year. The average occupancy rate is 108 per cent and the number of admissions is expected to rise over the next decade.