Smile cookies return to Calgary Tim Hortons stores, proceeds benefit NICU patients

Smile cookies will be available at select Tim Hortons stores in Calgary until Sept. 19.

CALGARY — The quintessential 'smile cookie' for a good cause is back on Tim Hortons shelves' for its 25th anniversary.

Tim Hortons restaurants across Calgary will be selling the joyous-looking treats for $1 and 100 per cent of the proceeds will be donated to Calgary Health Foundation and Calgary’s neonatal intensive care units (NICU)

Valerie Ball, Calgary Health Foundation's director of communications, says this campaign is massive for the funding of Calgary’s tiniest patients.

"We have a $66 million campaign to redevelop neonatal intensive space at Foothills (Medical Centre). It's one of the busiest units in the country," explained Ball. "We know that one-in-eight newborns in Calgary need that care, it’s higher than nationally."

Ball says it's absolutely critical that Calgary Health Foundation support this redevelopment of the NICU so that the city's most fragile patients, some as small as a pound of butter, get the care they desperately need.

"Calgary is a place where prematurity is a concern so we are also investing in research to understand why."

The smile cookies will be available from Sept. 13-19 at participating Tim Hortons locations.