Moosomin raises over $16,000 in Holiday Smile Cookie Sales, second in Sask for most cookies sold
December 1, 2025, 12:47 pm
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Moosomin Tim Hortons raised $16,028 in Holiday Smile Cookie sales during Holiday Smile Cookie Week from November 17-23, making it the second highest selling location in Saskatchewan, behind Humboldt who raised $22,239. In third spot was Weyburn with $12,070 in sales.
Proceeds from Moosomin’s Holiday Smile Cookie sales will go toward operating costs at the Moosomin Visual Arts Centre.
“We are very pleased with those results and we are breaking the record books again,” says Moosomin Tim Hortons owner Greg Crisanti. “That’s the highest amount that we’ve done for our Holiday Smile Cookies, and it’s a difficult time, it’s Christmas time and the economy is tough too. We are very pleased to have this support and be able to make a donation in that amount to organizations that we truly love. We are very pleased and can’t thank everyone enough.
“We knew by Wednesday (of Smile Cookie Week) that we were doing well, but we underestimated the support that we were going to be getting. The weather gods co-operated, there were no highway closures so we were busy, there was lots going on in town for sports teams and school was in. All these factors play into the week and it was amazing. We couldn’t believe it. We drained a warehouse out of cookies, our supplier wasn’t able to get us anymore Holiday Smile Cookies, so I think late Saturday or Sunday we had to pivot to the chocolate chunk. All these things are amazing to happen because of the support we were given, it’s just remarkable.”
Crisanti says he is proud of Moosomin for how well it always does in the Smile Cookie fundraisers.
“It keeps on rockin,’ people are definitely putting us on the map, people are asking what we’re doing or seeing us on our social channels and seeing it in the paper as well. It’s fantastic to be leaders in a smaller community, the amount that we do is remarkable.
“Proud is an understatement. Our teams are so thrilled to be able to do it, and it’s fun for everybody. We just wrapped up our staff appreciation night on Monday as well. It just brings everybody closer together as far as the volunteers, the staff, even our guests coming in. We love doing it, and we love the challenge and the adrenaline keeps us going throughout the week. We always laugh, we don’t want to see another cookie for a little bit after the week’s done, but it’s all playful fun.”
He says the team at Tim Hortons manages will with such a high volume of cookies going out the door.
“There’s a lot of timing that goes into it, as far as making sure we have enough cookies on hand throughout the week, and our freezer space is limited, so it’s a balancing act to try and keep everything balanced in the freezer and organized there. This is all along with our normal operations,” he says.
“We only do have two ovens in the back, so basically from Sunday evening, those ovens are going full time throughout the week. We’re not shutting them off because we’re still having to do our normal baking for our normal products that we carry, as well as keep up with holiday cookies.
“There is a good balancing act. I wouldn’t say it’s a challenge, we’re fortunate enough to have done it before, but the pre-planning, we definitely go big with it to make life easier for all our staff.”
Krista Crellin, the president of the Moosomin Visual Arts Centre, says she was humbled by how many people bought Holiday Smile Cookies to support the arts centre.
“Wow is my first thought, that’s amazing,” she said of the total raised. “Moosomin has always been such a supportive community of the Smile Cookie sales and it’s so nice to know that they also were supportive of the arts centre when we were a recipient. I’m honored that Tim Hortons chose us and was just delighted.
“Having this money takes a big burden off of us. We’re a primarily volunteer run organization, we are a very busy centre, so we have a lot of overhead and costs and staff to pay, so this is really going to ease things for us.
“I think it will mostly go toward operating costs for us at this point.
“It really just reinforces our belief that our centre was needed in town and it really is heartwarming to know that we have so much community support. We are honored to be chosen, we are honored that everybody bought cookies and donated and chose to support us.”
The arts centre has been open for almost two years, and Crellin says things are busy there.
“We are pretty busy, we are still trying to do at around two classes a week, pottery is really kicking off, we have a few more instructors and so much interest in the pottery classes. Every time we have them, they fill up immediately. Glass is also a popular one that fills up fast,” she says. “Our kids programming is really popular as well. Our summer camp was full again this year and we had lots of good comments about that.
“We’ve been busy and doing fundraisers on our own. We just had our Christmas market and it was another successful market, we had quite a few people coming through. It has been a good year.
“I would just like to thank Tim’s for choosing us for a recipient. I’ve heard nothing but really great things about working with Tims. Lyla Smart and Lynne Hafner and Jen Grant with MVAC were the ones that really were organizing and setting up with all the volunteers (to make Smile Cookies), so I’d like to say a thank you to them and to Tim’s as well.”
