Wednesday, May 11 has all the makings for a McHappy Day for The Children’s Foundation that serves local children and youth.
On that day, McDonald’s restaurants in Brighton, Campbellford and Trenton will donate 10 per cent of sales to The Children’s Foundation as well as a portion to Ronald McDonald House charities.
Belleville-based The Children’s Foundation supports Northumberland, Hastings and Prince Edward Counties with a variety of programming to enhance the lives of at-risk children and youths.
Ken Schmidt, owner of McDonald’s restaurants in Brighton, Campbellford and Trenton, has also teamed up with Bob Doyle, the owner of McDonald’s in Belleville and Madoc, to make May 11 an even bigger day of local fundraising.
“We feel like it’s such a worthwhile charity, it operates in three different counties and we feel fortunate that we can join with another owner/operator to raise funds and really make it a bigger event locally.”
Schmidt said the McHappy Day goal for the five area McDonald’s restaurants is to raise $20,000 locally during the day-long event.
“It’s a lofty goal, but I think one thing the community has shown us is that we have a lot of support for these charities in our community and people love to go to McDonald’s,” said Schmidt. “In the past we donate money from the sale of specific items that need to be purchased and we donate money from that, but this year it’s basically 10 per cent of anything.”
Schmidt noted that although McDonald’s is a large, multi-national company, it’s focus has always been on helping locally in the communities where its restaurants operate. McHappy Day is just one way McDonald’s lends a hand locally.
“I think McDonald’s has always been a proud supporter of local charities and local communities and they like to be. As much as we’re a big company, we like to be local to our communities. And, I know in our area it’s important to us to support a charity that involves children and we like to give back to the community and we do so in a lot of different ways,” said Schmidt.
“But, on this specific day, it’s the entire company that comes together to try to raise funds. I believe we get a lot of excitement, our staff is excited to be supporting the community, they are good ambassadors for us. We also feel that every community that we are in really feels that we are part of the community and that’s really why it’s important for us on McHappy Day to show us as part of the community in which we operate.”
Schmidt said there was a need to scale back on local ‘celebrity’ involvement during McHappy Day due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In past years, local leaders such as mayors, police officers and fire chiefs lent their time to the fundraising efforts at McDonald’s restaurants.
“We’re limiting it a little bit because of the fact it is still COVID times. What we’ve done is limited the number of people. We’ve asked the firefighters in Trenton to help support us, but generally they’ve supported us from outdoors, which is great. We’re going to invite the mayor of Trenton (Quinte West) as well. We’re hoping that next time we’ll go back to our normal of inviting lots of guests,” said Schmidt.
Mostly, though, Schmidt is hoping the communities will turn out in support of the 28th McHappy Day this year on Wednesday, May 11th.
“I encourage anyone that if you’re going to have a coffee that day, if you’re going to have lunch that day, if you’re going to go out for dinner with your family that day to keep McDonald’s in mind because 10 per cent of all the money raised is going to a local charity and you can feel good about supporting something even though you’re just having dinner,” said Schmidt.
(Written by: Alan Rivett)
