Alberta woman gives away 133,000 Rum & Butter bars in a 'whirlwind' of charity
CBC
Crystal Regehr Westergard has made a lot of people very happy with her 133,000 Rum & Butter chocolate bars.
The Camrose, Alta., founder of Canadian Candy Nostalgia recently found herself in a pickle when pandemic delays left her with an unwieldy surplus of the classic confectioneries — all with a best before date in June.
But a few news stories and many, many emails later, Westergard has given away all her extra treats to a host of Canadian charities, food banks, churches and volunteer organizations.
It feels good to do good, she said — but she hopes it never comes to this again.
"I think I'll look back on it and say I'm glad I did it," Westergard said. "But when you're in the typhoon whirlwind, it's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot."
WATCH: Canadian company's chocolate bar backlog:
It's also been a lot of work for Rena Pilon, but she's more than happy to do it.
Pilon is the communications and safety officer for the Bradwell Volunteer Fire Department in Saskatchewan, which took 16,000 of the Rum & Butter bars off Westergard's hands.
The volunteer firefighters, who service communities in and around the Rural Municipality of Blucher, Sask., are planning to sell the bars to raise money for much-needed new equipment.
"We're very proud of our small little department, and all our volunteers are excited to get out there and try to sell some of these candy bars," Pilon said.
The shipments — 1.5 pallets of bars weighing about 770 kilograms — arrived to much fanfare on Thursday, with free delivery courtesy of Purolator.
"When we read about Canadian Candy Nostalgia's creative call-out to give their chocolate bars away instead of letting them go to waste, we knew we could help," Purolator spokesperson Courtney Reistetter said in an email.
"The chocolate bars will be put to good use by the fire department in their fundraising efforts, making it a win-win all around."
It took a lot of co-ordination to make it happen, Pilon said, but she's grateful to anyone involved.
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