Look what a cookie can do ...

Dr. Scott Shulman decorates a batch of smile cookies to help kick off Tim Hortons ‘Smile Cookie’ campaign.

What can one cookie do in North Bay not a whole lot but with the support of a local business and the community quite simply a cookie can turn into a life saving tool.

Today in support of the North Bay and District Hospital’s Argon Plasma Coagulator program, Tim Hortons launched the ‘Smile Cookie’ campaign. The chocolate chunk Smile Cookies sell for a $1 each (tax excluded) at the various Tim Hortons locations throughout the city until Sunday September 28th. It the cookies have not sold out by that date the sale will continue to Wednesday October 1st.

“The smile cookie program has actually been running in North Bay now for four years now,” explains Tim Hortons marketing manager John McLellan.

“We want to get involved with something in the community that people can really relate to and I think in the form of cancer care equipment, I think there’s not too many people in North Bay that haven’t been affected by cancer in some way, and if this is to someway make a procedure of diagnosis a little bit easier we want to help out.”

The argon plasma coagulator (APC), already in use at the hospital, is a revolutionary piece of medical equipment setting a new standard of care in the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer.

“It’s always important when you are practising medicine to have the proper equipment available to you at all times and this really is the top of the line equipment that we have now and with all of our fundraising we’ve really set up North Bay to have the top of the line endoscopy centre. We have brand new scopes, we have a plasma coagulator, we have really good equipment so we can provide good care to our patients without them having to leave town,” says Dr. Scott Shulman, F.R.C.P.C. who was on hand to lend his special decorating styles for the first batch of cookies for sale.

“Now we have it available to us and it is great because people don’t have to leave town and when you need something urgently if somebody is bleeding to death you’ve got it right there and sort of one stop shopping. “

Noting the CAT scan and other major equipment purchases Shulman was quick to applaud the community for always being at the ready to help out.

“That’s really the bonus of living in a small community is that people feel it more personally when you get new equipment like this, rather than in a larger community where things are less personal and they don’t know the people benefiting from this equipment as well, so I think it is wonderful North Bay fundraises,” he says.

“There have been a number of fundraising campaigns over the years and the community’s really been wonderful about this.”

Shulman says the equipment also allows staff to perform as a high-end teaching centre level.

“We claim to have a one tier medical system and if we don’t have the right equipment in the smaller communities then we don’t really have a one tier medical system, and so this is important to have.”

“It is almost the mandate of Canada to have one tier medicine and this is the only true way we can have it.”

McLellan adds that the event is a commitment made by a lot people including all the franchisees.

“They are actually donating 100 percent of the proceeds to the Argon Plasma Coagulator program and in order for this to work we need help from the customers as well.”

“There is a lot of labour involved in making the smile cookies and the staff has to buy into the program as well ... they really want to support the program and they are encouraging people to come in and buy a coffee and to buy a smile cookie because it is all going to a great cause.”