Tim Hortons has launched a limited-time fundraising donut in honour of Orange Shirt Day.
100 per cent of the proceedings excluding taxes from the orange-sprinkled donut will be donated to the Orange Shirt Society and the Indian Residential School Survivors Society.
The donut is on sale at Tim Hortons restaurants across Canada from today through October 6th.
This campaign was developed with a group of Indigenous Tim Hortons owners including Shane Gottfriedson, Joe Quewezance, and Mitch Shuterwho from B.C, Sharon and Brian Bruyere of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba and Landon Miller from Six Nations of the Grand River territory.
Orange Shirt Day was first observed on Sept. 30 since 2013, when Phyllis Webstad told her story of her first day of residential school. She was six years old in 1973, excited to be wearing her new clothes and going to school for the first time, only to have her shiny new orange shirt ripped away and learn that she didn’t matter. Her organization, the Orange Shirt Society, and the Every Child Matters movement she created continue to raise awareness about Canada’s history of residential schools, along with honouring the survivors and their families and the children who never returned home.
September 30 is also National Day for Truth and Reconciliation — a day to recognize the ongoing trauma caused by residential and day schools and to remember those who were lost, their families and survivors.