Smile Cookies 2024 –

Another WILD Success!

Smile Cookies 2024 was another huge success within Dawson Creek, and surrounding the South Peace Region.

Over 24,000 Smile Cookies brightened our days. And over 17 relay cookie challenges were completed!

The cookie challenges, this year, were PHENOMENAL! We kicked the campaign off with a challenge between Mayor Dober and City Council vs City of Dawson Creek employees (Congratulations, Team Mayor Dober and City Council!). We ended the first day of Smile Cookies with another challenge between Clan MacDonald vs. [Dale] Bumstead’s Assassins (congratulations Clan MacDonald!)

Day 2 kicked off the highly anticipated BATTLE OF THE DEALERSHIPS! Four dealerships (Peace Country Toyota, Inland Auto Centre, Bannister GM and Bannister Ford) compete to see who reigns supreme and Dawson Creek’s dealership cookie eating challenge! Bannister GM and Bannister Ford held inter-dealership competitions to determine who would get home advantage before meeting head to head. Later in the day, Corlane’s Sporting Goods held a competition within the store. By the end of the day, it was very evident we have some serious cookie competitors in Dawson Creek!

Day 3 was an exciting, and busy busy BUSY day! Our board members delivered cookies to Tumbler Ridge – Thank you, Tony, with Trend Mountain Hotel & Conference Centre for being the landing place for the Tumbler Ridge cookies. And thank you to everyone in Tumbler for the outpour of Smile Cookie Support! We started the day at Inland Auto Centre for another inter-dealership competition. This one, again, was for best time before meeting Peace Country Toyota in the next bracket. Then, our team was off to the Ovintiv Events Centre to decorate all the Smile Cookies for School District 59 schools. We decorated alongside the Ovintiv Events Centre staff, and Ovintiv Canada ULC (Calgary and Dawson Creek Staff). Everyone managed to decorate over 2,000 cookies! Peace Country Toyota had their turn doing an inter-dealshipshi cookie challenge for best time. They put up a fierce time, and strong cookie eating skills right from the hop. Ovintiv Canada ULC was next for a cookie eating challenge. They kept the comradre strong and had a friendly competition of Dawson Creek and Calgary employees mixed between the two teams. And then we finished the day with 3 cookie challenges with the DCSS – South Peace Campus Interact Club, and Rotary Sunrise! The students went head-to-head first, and then met the Rotarians for a final challenege. Congratulations, Rotary Sunrise!

Day 4 had our board members up bright and early as cookies were deliered to every school within the South Peace Region! The local sponsorship is incredibly heart-warming to know every child in our district is able to share a cookie with a classmate. The Smile Cookie challenges continued as we saw Peace Country Toyota vs. Inland Auto Group. Not only did Toyota got home advantage for this challenge, but they WON – eliminated Inland from the bracket. Northern Lights College – Dawson Creek Campus hosted 4 cookie challenges at the same time! We saw instructors, office admin, and students participating. The Trades students came out as the ultimate winner! Next were the Dawson RCMP vs Dawson Firefighters. A gracious THANK YOU needs to mentioned here – The Firefighters Association, and Firefighters Charitable Society graciously donated $1,000 to the Foundation. We ended the day at Co-op as we had grocery employees vs. office staff. Congrats, Grocery, on the victory!

Our final weekday of the campaign began bright and early as Kyle and I faciliated a challenge at the Sunrise Rotary meeting. There were all levels of cookie-eating ability, and some deep-rooted competitive spirit! The long awaited Dealership Final was finally upon us. Bannister GM vs. Peace Country Toyota. Final victor, in just over 4 minutes was… PEACE COUNTRY TOYOTA! They will house the coveted Aspol Ford Memorial Smile Cookie trophy for the year! CONGRATULATIONS! Our Friday challenges ended with a quick friendly competition between the Dawson Creek Chamber of Commerce and the Lake View Credit Union. Dave, with SPCLS, was a fierce competitor and took the win home for the Chamber!

By Saturday, was Dawson Creek exhausted and sick of Smile Cookies? NO! Absolutely NOT! Sponsors still came out of the woodworks to get cookies to the Into the Woods animal rescue fundraiser, and the spring dance showcase. Our gracious sponsors, Brown’s Social House, Longhorn Oilfield Services, and All-Pro Services, sponsored 1,200 cookies for the first 600 people into both the Monster Madness Truck shows!

For the remainder of the weekend, everyone continued to treat themselves and their special people with smile cookies. I cannot express the gratitude the Dawson Creek and District Hospital Foundation has for the outpouring of support from sponsors throughout the South Peace Region. So many smiles were shared, and the generocity was deeply felt and appreciated.

Even greater, on behalf of the Foundation, we are grateful and so proud of Kyle and Gillian MacDonald. As owners of both Dawson Creek Tim Horton’s locations (and the Chetwynd location), we are honoured to have this relationship with them. They put in endless hours, especially throughout Smile Cookie Week, working around the clock to ensure cookie orders are filled, and community connection is maintained. We love doing Smile Cookies every year, and always look forward to new and excited adventures with them.

Thank you, Dawson Creek, Tumber Ridge, and surrounding areas, for making this an incredibly successful campaign. We were ultimately able to raise $38,946.95, which SURPASSED our goal, allowing us to easily purchase our equipment goals for the campaign – two ECG units for Dawson and Tumbler, an ice/water unit for the Maternity ward, and a Paediatric Broselow Cart for the Emergency department.

From the bottom of our hearts – THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

– Vicki Rose, Executive Director

PS. If you haven’t already, check out our Facebook and Instagram page, both @dcdhfoundation for photos of all our deliveries, and vidoes of all the Smile Cookie challenges!