This past Saturday, May 11, was a big day for the local Chestermere M&M Meat’s Shop, as well as M&M’s across Canada.
It makes the annual M&M Meat Shops Charity Barbeque Day, where for three dollars, anyone can get a burger or a hot dog, and all the proceeds go to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC).
The even ran all day long, from 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon.
The foundation wasn’t all that well known until M&M Meat Shops teamed up with them to raise money and awareness at Charity Barbeque Day.
As stated in the nationwide M&M’s press release, Canada has among the highest number of known cases of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis – two similar but slightly different conditions also known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – in the world.
There are more than 233,000 Canadians suffering from IBD and the incidences have been rising, particularly since 2001, and significantly so in children under the age of 10.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Charity Barbeque event, and over the past 24 years, M&M Meat Shops has raised over 23.1 million dollars all together.
All the money raised at the event, which is held at over 430 M&M Meat Shop store locations across Canada, goes directly to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.
The money raised in past years has funded major medical research products, and the founder of M&M Meat shops, Mac Voisin, could not be happier.
He started the idea of Charity Barbeque Day back in 1989, with very few stores and not a lot of awareness for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, but it’s blossomed into this huge event over the last 25 years, and one day hopes the money and awareness of event like Charity Barbeque Day will help the CCFC one day find a cure.
Here in Chestermere, the Barbeque hosted on May 11th is the third one the town’s M&M Meat Shop has held.
Robin Impey, the owner of the town’s store, is very excited about the event.
They’ve been highly successful the past years that they’ve been held in Chestermere, and Impey hopes this year is even more successful that the last.
This year, Char Logan is what Impey called the ‘Barbeque Captain’, as she organized and is running the entire event.
“She’s the go-to person that makes it happen. We’d be dead in the water without her,” Impey said.
Logan has a great team all ready for the event this year, with adults and young kids alike ready and willing to help out for a good cause.
Mayor Patricia Matthews, Councillor Christopher Steeves, and MLA Bruce McAllister all came out for the event as well.
These recognizable town figure heads were more than happy to come out for part of the event, especially to help out a good cause.
They even got the hands-on experience, helping prepare and serve up dozens of delicious M&M Meat Shops hamburgers and hot dogs.
The Charity Barbeque Day is a great success for M&M Meat Shops, as it has been for many years, and Chestermere as a community, as well as the rest of Canada can only hope it remains such a success.
This year at the local Chestermere branch alone, over $2, 200.00 was raised for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, which was all contributed to M&M Meat Shops goal total for 2013 of 1.3 million dollars.
