Challenge completed
Rod Fleming (second from the left) presented a cheque to the Heart and Stroke Foundation in the amount of $2,358, raised by the staff of the Embrun Giant Tiger. Also pictured from the left, Lynn Kenney, coordinator of fundraising for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Weston Fleming, Rod’s son and Monique Robertson, store associate. Glover photo

Honk for Heart and Stroke!
For nearly an hour, Embrun Giant Tiger owner Rod Fleming stood in the hot sun wearing a large Olaf costume with his son, Weston, signalling drivers to honk for the cause. And yes, his hair was also dyed blue.
Glover photo

EMBRUN – Don’t worry, you weren’t hallucinating the man in the Olaf costume with blue hair standing outside the Embrun Giant Tiger on Fri., Aug. 2 asking drivers to honk their horn; Giant Tiger owner Rod Fleming, was just on the losing side of a bet.

“I always like to give my staff a challenge and sometimes I might underestimate them a little bit,” he joked. “They always seem to exceed expectations.”

That challenge was issued; could the staff raise at least $2,000 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation? The short answer, yes they can; raising a grand total of $2,358 for the organization.

“One of our associates was affected by a stroke and that was very personal,” said Fleming. “Not to mention a lot of our customers and family members have also been affected.”

The money raised by the Embrun Giant Tiger will go toward many different avenues within the Heart and Stroke Foundation organization including research and to run a variety of programs and events that are held within their areas.

“We do have a few of the businesses that do some paper hearts, they ask us to visit and they’ll help us and it’s unbelievable to see how people are reacting to the Heart and Stroke [Foundation],” said Lynn Kenney, coordinator for fundraising at the Heart and Stroke Foundation. “People have other things to spend money on these days, but they still choose to give and that’s really quite nice.”

Fleming and his team are going to continue to enjoy the summer season but that doesn’t mean a new challenge won’t be issued sometime in the near future. You can see the big cheque in the store, along with other cheques from previous challenges, hanging overhead near the cash registers.