Wendy Thomas herself was on hand to help mark an amazing milestone for the 18th Annual Wendy's DreamLift day in BC's Southern Interior.

As of today, the Wendy’s DreamLift Day fundraiser has raised $1,109,356.99 for the Sunshine Foundation since it started in 1995. On Wednesday, January 25, 2012, the amount raised  was $114,276.35 from this one-day event!

This was a landmark year for two reasons. Not only because the total donations have surpassed the million dollar mark, but because Wendy Thomas, daughter of Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas, visited the BC Southern Interior to lend her support. Wendy made a point of visiting every market including Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Rutland, Kelowna, West Kelowna and Penticton. She was welcomed wherever she went and totally impressed by the level of volunteer, media and community involvement. 

Wendy was amazed, “I think there was a huge involvement with every community I was in. Over the day, it kept building and building. I’m just in awe how people will wait in line for an hour to come to have a hamburger and be part of the whole thing of giving back to the community. It’s the foundation of its success.”

The restaurants were assisted by volunteers from all walks of life. They added to the fun of the day by changing from their usual jobs in their communities to something very different: preparing burgers & salads, making fries, cleaning trays and tables and all sorts of other behind the scenes tasks that helped make the day such a great success.

The total includes the gross profits, wages and salaries from all the staff, management and ownership of the nine Wendy’s Restaurants in Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Vernon, Kelowna, West Kelowna and Penticton. 

A special thank you to the Orange County Sheriff’s who helped make this such a special day: Commander Don Barnes, Lieutenant Robert Peterson, Lieutenant Mike Toledo, Captain Bill Griffin, and Captain Linda Solorza. In addition, Marilyn MacDougall, Executive Director and Kim Magdaleno  from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Advisory Council attended.

The next Wendy’s DreamLift to Disneyland is tentatively scheduled for late 2013.

Thanks to all of you, more dreams will come true!