Archive for the ‘Charity’ Category

CanadaDrugs.com Recognized by United Way

Posted by on March 19th, 2012

Winnipeggers stepped up to raise over $18.9 million dollars for our home community of Winnipeg, Manitoba through United Way last year and CanadaDrugs.com was recognized as a Gold Standard partner for helping to raise over $90,000 as part of this community effort.

The United Way supports programs and strategies that offer young people an alternative to the streets, help families achieve financial independence, and improves neighbourhood health and personal well-being. It’s dedicated to building stronger, safer, healthier communities. The United Way is active in 45 countries around the world, and makes positive contributions in over 1800 communities. It’s a safe bet that the United Way is active in your community and you can learn more about your local organization too by visiting their website and find out you can help.

In addition to the Gold Standard recognition, CanadaDrugs.com also was given a Quantum Leap award, which signifies that we were able to raise our donations as a company over 25% since 2010. We’re extremely proud of this recognition and our entire organization at our head office is already working hard to top our 2011-contribution level. Through the generous corporate matching of our CEO and President Kris Thorkelson our employees are able to make a real difference in our community through the United Way.

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Things Got Hairy at Canada Drugs Last Month

Posted by on December 6th, 2011

November saw CanadaDrugs.com get itself into quite the “hairy” situation as many of our staff at our head office in Winnipeg hoped on board the Movember Movement to raise funds for prostate cancer research and other men’s health issues.

You may not have heard of Movember, but you might have seen a few more moustaches around during the month of November. Basically it asks men to spend 30 days to become a walking billboard with their moustaches and raise funds and awareness about important issues that affect men’s health. It began in 2003 in Australia, and has since spread around the world and has now raised over $100 million in just this year’s effort alone. You can check out where the funds were raised this year around the world here. Canada is again leading the world in funds raised! We just love our moustaches up here I guess! They help keep our lips warm as it starts getting cold.

During Movember each “Mo-Bro” and the “Mo-Sista’s” who support (or at least tolerate their loved ones scratchy facial hair) collect pledges on the Movember home page, and show their moustache progress. Since its humble beginnings in Melbourne Australia, Movember has grown to become a truly global movement inspiring more than 1.1 Million Mo Bros and Mo Sistas to participate, with formal campaigns in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and Ireland. It’s a fun way to raise money for some very important health issues that affect men.

During his lifetime, 1 in 7 men will develop prostate cancer, the most common cancer to affect men in both Canada and United States. For older men, the rate of developing the disease is almost 1 in 4. Some early detection guidelines are found at the Canadian Prostate Cancer site. How common the disease is, and how fast it’s growing is a reason why the Movember movement, while a lot of fun, also pretty serious stuff. Hopefully the awareness and funds raised from men donating their upper lip can convince a few more people to get tested early, and can raise funds that will lead to better treatment or even a cure.

The CanadaDrugs.com participants had fun showing off their looks, and we gave prizes to some of the best ‘staches that we saw around the office. Check out a few of the braves CanadaDrugs.com staff that let us take their picture and document their proud and not so proud month long facial hair effort. Now that it’s December, we see a lot of new faces around the office that were hidden away in November!

If you to join in helping to “Change the Face of Men’s Health” organize a few of the mo-bro and mo-sista’s in your life to start a Movember campaign next year. It’s a lot of fun and for a truly important and worthwhile cause.

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Canada Drugs Supports the United Way in a Big Way!

Posted by on November 25th, 2011

Every year around this time Canada Drugs dedicates a week to the United Way. We raise money throughout the year for the United Way, but during our annual United Way Kickoff Week, we put a special focus on this great organization and devote a week to learning more about the good work they do in our community of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and as organization the type of work they do around world.

The United Way of Winnipeg supports a variety of programs and strategies with a focus on three areas, education, income and health. The education programs help children and youth achieve their potential, while the many income, programs are designed to promote financial stability and independence. The health programs that they support work to improve neighbourhood health and personal well-being. The United Way works with nearly 100 partner agencies around Winnipeg by assisting them in delivering lasting, positive change. During the United Way week at our Canadian pharmacy, we gathered to hear personal stories from some of the people that have been helped by the organization and see where some of the money that we raise goes. We heard touching stories about how the stroke recovery program helped a woman regain the ability to speak, and how the income assistance program allowed a man who suffered from a degenerative eye disease to attend classes where he gained skills that allowed him to remain in the workforce.

The United Way is active in 45 countries around the world, and makes positive contributions in over 1800 communities. It’s a safe bet that the United Way is active in your community too and you can learn more about your local organization too by visiting their website. The great thing about supporting your local United Way is that your valued donation will stay right in your local community and help people right around you.

The best thing about our annual United Way drive is that our President and CEO Kris Thorkelson agrees to generously match every dollar raised by Canada Drugs with 4 dollars of his own. Some of the fun events we held over the week were our own version of the game show “Minute to Win It,” an exciting raffle where the grand prize was a set of Winnipeg Jets tickets, and the always popular “Cage and Pie your Boss”, where we all got to donate money for the chance to throw a pie at our bosses, or lock them away in a jail to wear funny hats for the afternoon. These events, along with the yearly pledge forms and our CEO big matching fund raised a grand total of $91,944.30 for the United Way! Next year we hope to break the $100,000 mark for the first time!

Enjoy some of the pictures from the fun we had, and try to get involved in your community too, either through donating what you can spare, or lending some time to a worthy cause like the United Way. We can all make a big difference in our communities by working together just a little.

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Canada Drugs E-Business Supports ‘Movember’ Movement

Posted by on November 12th, 2010

In 2004, the first year of raising awareness and funding through Movember, 432 participants raised $55,000. Last year, more than 250,000 participants raised $42 million US around the world and the goal in 2010 is to beat that.

Canada Drugs E-Business Department is participating this year. The E-Business staff at Canada Drugs are responsible for the website, marketing, and the computer systems that allow our customers to order and receive their prescription medication from us.  A few of the staff are growing moustaches and collecting donations from their family and friends.

At the Movember Foundation you can learn more men’s health issues and facts. Movember’s primary campaign objective is to raise awareness of men’s health issues, specifically cancers affecting men. Most cancers are highly curable if caught in the early stages- including prostate and testicular cancer.  Movember aims to increase early detection, diagnosis and effective treatment, as this will ultimately reduce the number of deaths from cancer.  It’s time men face some startling health facts:

  • 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, 1 in 3 women will be
  • 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime
  • An estimated 8.7 million adult men over the age of 20 in the US have diabetes- and a third do not know it
  • Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in American males between the ages of 15 and 34
  • Approximately 50 million men and women in the US have high blood pressure- almost 30 per cent of them do not know it

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Canada Drugs Gives Back With The United Way

Posted by on October 22nd, 2010

This was an exciting week at Canada Drugs, as we marked our sixth year supporting the United Way of Winnipeg, the local chapter of the international United Way organization. As a company, we have always strived to be excellent corporate citizens and our founder and CEO Kris Thorkelson’s encourages the entire Canada Drugs family to join him in giving back to the community.

The United Way of Winnipeg supports a variety of programs and strategies that offer young people an alternative to the streets, helps families achieve financial independence, and improves neighborhood health and personal well-being. It works with nearly 100 partner agencies around Winnipeg by assisting them in delivering lasting, positive change. The United Way is active in 45 countries around the world, and makes positive contributions in over 1800 communities. Now You can learn more about your local organization too! The great thing about supporting your local United Way is that your valued donation will stay right in your local community.

The Canada Drugs United Way campaign raised $10,310.66 in 2009 and Kris Thorkelson generously pledged to match every dollar raised by his Canada Drugs staff by donating 4 dollars for every dollar raised. That means his contribution of $41,243.64 brought the total raised by Canada Drugs to just over $51,553. We are proud of this significant contribution we are able to make to our community and hope to exceed our 2009 total during this years drive.

Our United Way week events included draws and raffles, bake sales, games, and popular events like “Jail Your Supervisor,” where Canada Drugs staff got to pledge money to keep their managers locked up in jail all day.  We all had a great time, raising money for a great cause. We thank our valued customers for supporting us as well, and allowing us to share the success we have built.

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