Community and Local Youth Rally to Bring Smiles to SONG
Tim Hortons SMILE Cookie Campaign captured Northumberland’s imagination and helps give local kids *free* music.
Sounds of the Next Generation (SONG) was recently the recipient of the 2023 Tim Hortons Smile Campaign in Port Hope. The community rallied around the cause – raising record amounts! Before the campaign a local resident agreed to match every additional donation made directly to SONG (up to $10K). Local businesses Part Time CFO and Young Mee Kim then matched cookie sales totals creating the DOUBLE DOUBLE campaign. With excitement building, local Trinity College School student, Serar, discovered the campaign and decided to help.
Serar had previously seen relatively few opportunities to support local arts. Enlisting fellow student Emerson, and with the support of staff, Serar purchased 200 cookies to sell on TCS campus. The timing was perfect; it was TCS arts week and the cookies sold out and $300 in additional funds were also raised!
“SONG wants to thank Serar, and Emerson for showing us all that simple acts of support add up to keep the arts vital in our community” says Executive Director, Miles Bowman. “Together with funds raised across Northumberland, these two students helped us surpass our matching goals toward a total of $20249!”
With this funding SONG will explore new ways to offer free music programming to local youth across Northumberland. Tim Hortons Smile Campaign totals are nearly completed and will be announced soon.
About SONG: SONG offers 6-18 year-old students life-long skills using a model we all understand: music. Students get lasting social connections, and build mental wellness and resilience… while having fun! SONG makes culturally relevant music education accessible across Northumberland County. Everything needed to participate is free.
From left: Lucas Marchand (Artistic Director, SONG), Emerson, Serar, Miles Bowman (Executive Director, SONG)
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love