Anonymous coffee angel helps Camp Day charity

A customer paid for $ 1,000 worth of coffee for strangers at two northwest Tim Hortons locations on Wednesday morning as part of an annual fundraiser for camps for less advantaged youth.

The man, a regular at both stores, gave half the money to a location in Tuscany and the rest to another in the Crowfoot Shopping Centre.

“It’s all anonymous, and that’s the way he wanted it,” said Bobby Jantz, the Tuscany restaurant’s manager.

Jantz said the man pulled him aside and said he wanted to donate $ 500 to the fundraiser, Camp Day. Jantz then arranged to load the money onto gift cards that cashiers could use as payment for customers’ orders. He said he’s received only positive reactions.

“People are surprised at the generosity,” Jantz said. “People were very happy, and actually wanted to give more.”

Kelli Urquhart, manager of the Crowfoot location, said the man came to her cafe to repeat the process. When buying the other $ 500 worth of coffees, she said he told her he was the same person who donated at the Tuscany location.

Urquhart said her store encouraged customers to give the money they were planning to spend on coffee to charity. “I’d say probably 99 per cent of the people then donated their money to Camp Day instead of just putting it in their pocket and walking away with a free coffee,” she said.

This is not the first time the Crowfoot store has received a donations of this size for Camp Day. Last year, Urquhart said, they had two: one from the same man as this year and one from another anonymous person.

On Camp Day, Tim Hortons donates all profits from coffee sales to the company’s Children’s Foundation charity. According to the foundation’s website, the fundraiser brought in $ 11.8 million last year and sent 17,000 economically disadvantaged children to camp.