It's a sweet tradition guaranteed to put a smile on anyone's face.
Smile Cookie Week at Tim Hortons launched Monday morning with a Media Cookie Decorating Contest at the Mapleview Drive West location.
Smile Cookies were already selling like hot cakes, according to franchise owner Mark Hinton.
"So far we sold 350 Smile Cookies through the drive-through window alone already. In the first twenty minute. Just through the window," he said.
His staff make more than 2,000 cookies every day during Smile Cookie Week, seven days of happy cookie sales that benefit Hospice Simcoe and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Barrie and District.
"The cookies taste great and the guests are literally eating it up because that's where the dollar comes from," said Hinton.
He's been doing this event for 14 years and during that time, more than 600,0000 Smile Cookies have been sold in Tim Hortons locations in Barrie, Stroud and Alcona - which means $600,000 was raised for charity.
"Everybody loves a smile. And who can resist a cookie with a happy face on it. Nobody!" said Lynda Murtha of Hospice Simcoe.
Last year there was a record amount raised between Barrie, Stroud and Alcona - more than $100,000 or 100,000 cookies.
"The money we get from Smile Cookies is huge," said Murtha. "It's a very large donation and makes a big impact on all the programs and services we provide."
All of the hospice services are provided free of charge.
The smile money will go to the residential program in Barrie where over 200 people a year spend their final days and weeks at the hospice. There's a home visiting hospice service where trained volunteers support people in their homes and there's also grief and bereavement services.
The charities issued a challenge to the area to match or surpass last year's total.
'It's fun. It's really exciting. For us it's huge These are funds that go directly into our programming for all the Little Brothers and Little Sisters so it's huge. We're very fortunate and grateful," said Marianne Arbour, Executive Director of BBBS Barrie.
It's clearly fun for the owners who attended the launch and judged the media decorating contest.
Len Goodhand, franchise owner says it's tough for the restaurant owners to choose from so many charities in Barrie.
"Every charity is valid. Every charity is valuable in the community we wish we could we help everyone," said Goodhand, who says the generosity of their guests 'blows him away.'
"The kindness in peoples hearts. Let's face it. A cookie with a smiling icing face on it is exactly what it's meant to be. If you can put a smile on someone's face every day if we could all do that how awesome would that be."
Tim Hortons makes no money on Smile Cookies. It all goes to charity.
For the record, I won the Red Carpet Cookie Prize and Shawn was awarded the Lonely Cookie Trophy.
