The fifth annual Carman Collegiate Chocolate Mustache fundraiser was another smashing success, raising $18,412 for cancer care at Boundary Trails Health Centre.
Project leader Mary Reimer, principal at the high school, stopped by BTHC last week to present the proceeds raised through the sale of thousands of homemade chocolate goodies this fall.
This year’s tally brings the five-year total to $70,163.
“As always, we commit every single dollar that we earn to cancer care here at Boundary Trails,” Reimer said, sharing the campaign got its start following a friend’s cancer diagnosis.
“I had done a much smaller campaign the year before because a friend of mine was diagnosed with colon cancer. That money was only $1,500, donated to CancerCare Manitoba.
“The following August I was diagnosed with breast cancer and received treatment here at Boundary Trails, and so the fundraiser meant a little different the second year because I was going through treatment,” Reimer said. “It hit a little closer to home.”
The campaign is Reimer’s way of showing her gratitude for the amazing care she received through her cancer journey, and in memory of friends and loved ones who have walked a similar path, some of them losing their battle with the disease.
“I am able to thrive because of cancer care here at Boundary,” she stressed, noting she wants staff to know “that the quality of my life is a direct result of their efforts.”
The community response the fundraiser receives every year makes all the work that goes into it well worth it.
“My kitchen is a busy place during October and November,” Reimer said. “We make them at my home mostly, or in the school’s kitchen.
“Our communities are definitely showing just how generous and altruistic they are,” she said. “I’ve got lots of people who are reaching out with orders or asking me if they can make deliveries for me. They’re just asking me how they can support, which is lovely.”
OMG Candy out of Winnipeg donates the chocolate for the mustaches every year, and The Prices Rite in Carman provides the campaign with the other supplies it needs at cost.
Students throughout the Prairie Rose School Division get involved by buying and selling the chocolates, with classes and entire schools competing to see who can sell the most (this year Roland School won that honour).
“It’s really remarkable to see the community and our students and businesses all getting behind the fundraiser to help us raise a little bit of money for cancer care,”Reimer said.
BTHC Foundation executive director Shannon Samatte-Folkett said they are so grateful for the efforts of Reimer and for everyone who supports the campaign each year.
“We have people who donate to us online to this fundraiser. They don’t want the chocolate, but they want to support us because they relate to Mary’s story,” she said, noting it’s about so much more than chocolates. “The fundraiser has reached out to many more, and they have given in other ways.”
It’s a cause that hits especially close to home to Samatte-Folkett this year, as her aunt is battling cancer.
“I’m just seeing it through a different light, and I just want everyone, especially Mary, to know how much this means to me,” she said. “I want to thank the community. You are healing souls.”
The funds go toward helping the cancer care ward at BTHC get the things it needs to make the treatment experience as comfortable as possible for patients.
“When people donate to cancer care, there isn’t always a project right front and centre,” Samatte-Folkett explained. “There are many needs throughout the year that we help with.”
The biggest project on the horizon for the ward is a major expansion project slated to get underway next year.
“There will be a lot of equipment, a lot of the extras that we are going to help with,” Samatte-Folkett said, “so fundraisers like this are going to go towards the little extras for the patients, for the employees, and we are really excited to see what that is going to look like.”
