Safeway lending support to fight muscular dystrophy

After wrapping up its successful “We Care” campaign earlier this summer, the local Canada Safeway will be joining the company’s other 213 stores across Western Canada to raise funds for muscular dystrophy throughout August.
Starting this week, Safeway customers can purchase coupon books—containing $66 in value and more than 500 Air Mile rewards—for $2 each.
Better yet, the first coupon in the book is for $2 off a grocery order of $20 or more, so you basically get your money back if you spend that much.
All of the proceeds will go to Muscular Dystrophy Canada to help fund mobility equipment, home renovations, and medical research in hopes of finding a cure for neuromuscular disorders.
Local Safeway manager Kevin Langford said this morning the campaign marks a change in the way the store is doing its fundraising.
Instead of each store choosing its own charity, such as it did with the “We Care” campaign, all stores will follow the same program and support four major charities a year.
This year they include muscular dystrophy, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and Easter Seals.
However, the store still will try to keep the money in the community, stressed Langford. For example, with the most recent campaign, the proceeds are to help Stephen Erwin, a local man afflicted with muscular dystrophy, get a three-position lift chair.
Erwin will be at Safeway as a special guest on Tuesday (Aug. 5) from 2-6 p.m. to inform the public about muscular dystrophy.
This appearance also ties into the campaign objective to not only to raise money for charities, but to increase public awareness of diseases like muscular dystrophy, prostate cancer, and breast cancer.
Langford added that while many people have become more aware of breast cancer in recent years, prostate cancer, for example, is becoming more and more common and the public should learn more about it.
In related news, Langford said the local store achieved its goal of raising $15,000 to help local youth William Moody Jr. during its 2007-08 “We Care” campaign.
Moody suffers from spina bifida and uses a wheelchair to get around, and fundraising efforts went towards buying a lift for Moody’s home to better allow him to go up and down stairs to leave or enter.
While the “We Care” campaign officially ended in May, staff and Moody’s family teamed up to keep fundraising going over the summer until the $15,000 goal was met.
“Without the community support, these things wouldn’t happen,” said Langford.
He’s only been in Fort Frances for a year, but has found the community support for causes like Moody, and the new CT scanner, to be “fantastic.”