London Drugs Checks In With Continued Support For Southern Alberta

As many may know, major flooding began in Southern Alberta on Thursday, June 21^st shocking everyone. It was quick and ferocious. London Drugs instituted relief support for the Canadian Red Cross the following morning, June 22^nd, and now nearly three weeks later, it is our biggest donation drive ever, with customers having donated $50,000 in support of the Red Cross’ relief efforts.

Many of our staff members and customers have asked us, what is London Drugs doing beyond facilitating the ability for all of our Western Canadian customers to contribute to the Red Cross relief in Alberta? So we thought we should take the opportunity to provide a quick review of where we are at to date:

• When we learned power was being lost for thousands of people, we immediately instituted a free power charging service that was set up
  at all of our Southern Alberta stores’ customer service desks. This offering has been useful for many, and we have received great feedback from people thankful for this opportunity to charge their phones and other electronic devices.

• On June 23^rd, one of our store managers in Calgary brought a car trunk load of new socks and new pillows to the main drop in centre in Calgary for displaced people evacuated from their homes. We simply contacted the centre, found out what they needed, and were happy to help with these much-needed items.

• On July 3^rd in Medicine Hat, over 425 pounds of food was collected with contributions from both customers and London Drugs to support the Medicine Hat and District Food Bank.

• On July 4^th, we donated two skids worth of water, N95 masks and work gloves to both Calgary and High River volunteers. We chose these items for donation, as there was large concern about people’s health, and working in water that may contain harmful diseases and germs. We encouraged volunteers to stay hydrated, and wear N95 masks and work gloves for their safety.

• We are working closely with some of our vendor partners to donate items in need, and will be distributing these items to volunteers this week. These items include:
  • 120 bottles of Off Bug Spray
  • 720 bottles of Banana Boat Sunscreen
  • 720 packs of Wet Ones Antibacterial Wipes

• We have drop off bins in each of our Calgary stores accepting donations for the Calgary Food Bank. The collection drive coincides with the upcoming Five Hole for Food donation drive in support of the food bank, which London Drugs has sponsored and supported the last three years.

• In Edmonton, we responded to a donation drive for water and hygiene products for displaced residents by contributing 600 toothbrushes, which were taken to Calgary and distributed.

• As people were making their way back to their homes, we informed Calgary and area residents that if they have photo memories or computer hard drives damaged due to the floods, we can help restore their photos and photo albums, as well as help clean their hard drives and help retrieve lost data. We are providing these services at-cost.

In addition, and in following our pillar to encourage our staff and customers to be waste wise, we are working on several environmentally responsible initiatives in Calgary after learning water damage and contamination caused by Calgary’s recent flood created an estimated one-year’s worth of garbage in only a few hours. With flood debris heading to Calgary landfills over the next couple of weeks, we are helping residents and businesses to minimize waste in two ways.

1. As residents begin to clean their homes and dispose of the large amounts of flood damaged waste, we are encouraging residents to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill through electronic and small appliance return and recycling. Residents can bring their damaged item to any store, and we will manage the recycling at no cost.

1. Rocky Ridge Royal Oak Community Association (RRROCA), London Drugs and Green Calgary collaborated to reduce the trash hangover at RRROCA’s 6^thAnnual Stampede Breakfast on Saturday, July 6. Attendees were encouraged to bring their own reusable plates, cups and cutlery to reduce waste. Along with dish washing stations, the breakfast also featured green event services sponsored by London Drugs, provided by Green Calgary, including recycling and composting bins, as well as trained volunteers to assist with proper waste diversion.

We would like to sincerely thank our vendors for their contributions, as well as our customers for participating in our various donation drives for food and relief funds. We will continue to support affected residents in Southern Alberta on the ground, as well as collecting donations at all 77 London Drugs stores for the Canadian Red Cross flood relief efforts.