What began as a small fundraiser at a single Zehrs store in Guelph back in 2012 has grown to raise awareness and funds across the province of Ontario. This year, all forty-two Zehrs stores in Ontario joined together to support local epilepsy support centres in their fundraising and awareness efforts for the month of March.
Zehrs Markets proudly rallies behind its community as a “sea of orange” – making positive contributions to important causes. This year, that orange sea of caring individuals turned purple to raise funds and awareness for epilepsy. Across Ontario, Zehrs employees wore purple, hosted games, bbq’s, gave out prizes, collected donations and spread awareness about epilepsy and the important work each epilepsy support centre does in their community.
On Thursday, May 18th, representatives from participating epilepsy agencies from across Ontario met at the Guelph location to receive a cheque for $47.936.24! They were met by enthusiastic Zehrs employees in purple shirts, beaming with pride for their wonderful efforts. With six epilepsy agencies benefiting from this initiative, funds will go directly back to the community, supporting essential epilepsy support and education programming.
The funds were raised during the month of March, which is epilepsy awareness month in Canada and coincides with Purple Day, a national day for epilepsy awareness, taking place each year on March 26th.
A heartfelt thank you to all of the volunteers, staff, customers and community members involved in this wonderful campaign. Thank you so very much for your support.
For more pictures and stories of this year’s campaign, please check out #ZehrsPurpleDay on Facebook and Twitter or check out www.epilepsyontario.org to connect with your local epilepsy support centre.
