After having a quarter of their fundraising money taken by Superstore, a girls basketball team will be getting some money back from both the company and a generous donor.
Samaritan Barry Smith contacted Metro Halifax yesterday saying he wanted to donate $120 to the girls under-16 provincial team after hearing that much had been kept by Superstore after the girls did a weekend grocery bagging fundraiser.
Superstore’s policy is to take 25 per cent of money raised for its own cause, the Presidents Choice Children’s Charity, though the team thought it was only ten per cent.
“I’m shocked they would do something like that,” said Smith, a computer consultant. “I thought somebody should step up to the plate and help these girls out.”
Team coach Lezlie States said she was very grateful for Smith’s donation and said it would help the team travel to a tournament this summer.
Later in the day a spokeswoman for Loblaws, the company that owns Superstore, said stores generally have groups sign a form outlining the 25 per cent stake before they fundraise. She said that didn’t happen this time due to a mix-up so Loblaws would return the 15 per cent the team wasn’t expecting.
“Really we feel we’re giving the charity a pretty captive audience as the customer’s waiting there to pay for their groceries,” Inge van den Berg, Vice President of Investor Relations for Loblaws, said.
