Easter Seals celebrates another eggs-traordinary year with its annual Easter Seals Paper Egg campaign, which ran March 28 to April 24.

Participating retailers such as national sponsors tb!s the bargain shop and Booster Juice sold colourful paper eggs to customers for $2. The accumulating sales and eggs posted on store windows and walls showcased the generous support of communities from coast to coast, proving that a small gesture really does make a big difference.

Atlantic Sponsor, Price Chopper ran their campaign in March, raising an unprecedented $21,224, a leap of 162 percent from last year.

The Price Chopper store in Amherst, NS began the first week with $1,010 raised. There was no looking back. The store averaged $964 per week. In the end Amherst raised $3,858 for Easter Seals programs and services for Nova Scotians with disabilities.

tb!s stores collectively raised $146,989 with some help from business partners and home office. Since 2007, tb!s has raised $805,200. That’s the equivalent of sending more than 400 kids with disabilities to Easter Seals’ fully accessible summer camps.

tb!s Woodstock, NB remains unchallenged as top selling store, raising an incredible $5,932, which is a nine percent increase over last year.

“I would like to thank the people of Woodstock for believing what we believe,” says Doug MacKenzie, Manager of tb!s Woodstock. “Helping people with disabilities is a good thing to do. I believe we can all share a great sense of pride that together we are making a difference.”

Atlantic Sponsor, Lawtons Drugs increased Paper Egg sales by nine percent since last year, raising $62,200 for Easter Seals programs and services. Lawtons Drugs Halifax Shop Court had an extraordinary year, raising $6,190, one of the highest store sales in all of Canada. Their sales represent a 55 percent increase over their 2010 efforts.

Many Lawtons Drugs stores in Nova Scotia celebrate extraordinary growth this year, including Tantallon which raised $3,020 this year, up from $446 last year, making them the third highest selling Lawtons Drugs store in all of Atlantic Canada.

Celebrating its inaugural year as campaign sponsor, Booster Juice, which raised $35,894, engaged in the campaign in a number of creative ways, including a day long event at the Vernon (BC) Square Mall Booster Juice with a special visit from the Easter Bunny, and a paint-by-numbers party at the Atrium on Bay Booster Juice in Toronto. Licorise.ca taped the Toronto event and launched it on Urbanebloc.com, as well as BlogTO, 1 LOVE T.O, CoCo & Lowe to name a few.

Easter Seals is grateful for the support it receives from community-minded businesses and their customers. Together they raise hundreds of thousands of dollars so that Canadians with disabilities may participate in Easter Seals’ transformational programs and services.

For more on the annual Easter Seals Paper Egg campaign, visit www.paperegg.ca.

Members of the Foodservice and Hospitality industry gathered at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario on April 30th to celebrate a year of fundraising and successful events in a bid to send as many physically disabled children to summer camp as possible.

The highlight of the evening was a cheque presentation to Easter Seals Canada in the amount of $1,003,817. This amount represents Friends of We Care’s total fundraising in 2010 and will result in over 5,000 days at camp for those children in need.

Friends of We Care Inc. is an organization within the foodservice and hospitality industry which is dedicated to raising funds for Easter Seals Canada. Since its inception, Friends of We Care have generated over $15 million, sending over 35,000 children with physical disabilities to special summer camps across Canada.

Each year Friends of We Care dedicates a portion of the evening to honour the ongoing support of their participating companies and individuals. This year’s award recipients were as follows:

The Corporate Friend of We Care Award: This award was presented to Ecolab for their ongoing corporate commitment to Easter Seal children and their families through Friends of We Care Inc.

We Care Hall of Fame: This award was presented to Vino Mistry of Sysco Canada, recognizing his significant contributions to the growth and development of the foodservice and hospitality industry.

The Gary Wright Humanitarian Award: This award is named in honour of the founder of Friends of We Care Inc., and was presented to Edwin Sokoloff. The award is presented in recognition of Eddie’s contribution to the improvement of the community at large.

Easter Seals Canada congratulates the award winners for their ongoing contributions, and thanks Friends of We Care Inc. for their tireless support of children with disabilities.

We would also like to thank Friends of We Care ambassadors Jacob Calvert, Sydney Weaver and Tyler Preece for their participation in the gala and for helping spread the word about Easter Seals.

For more information on Friends of We Care, visit www.friendsofwecare.org