It didn’t take former NHL hockey player Greg Adams very long to know that he’d joined the right team when he opened his first Tim Hortons store almost 20 years ago.
The iconic Canadian brand has a proud tradition of giving back to the communities in which it operates.
“They have it built into their program,” explains Adams, who along with his wife, Judy, opened his first Tim Hortons store in January 2000 on the Trans Canada Highway in Duncan.
“A percentage goes directly back to the owners to spend and invest in the local community. That was very attractive to me,” says Adams who was born and raised in the Cowichan Valley and came home to go into business after a 10-year professional hockey career ended.
Adams has embraced that tradition and gone above and beyond what is expected of local franchise owners. The list of charities and sports organizations Adams has been able to support through his six Tim Hortons stores is impressive.
“We make about 200 donations a year, everything from gift baskets to larger donations,” says Adams who credits Steve Carlson and his wife Lisa for ensuring the Tim Hortons outlets run smoothly. Carlson has been by his side throughout his relationship with Tim Hortons.
Supporting sports teams and making sure youngsters experience the benefits that he enjoyed as a young athlete growing up in the Cowichan Valley is important for Adams.
“We support over 75 teams through the Timbits Minor Sports Program,” Adams says.
The Timbits Minor Sports Program is a community-oriented program that provides opportunities for kids aged four to nine to play house league sports. The philosophy of the program is not based on winning or losing, but on learning a new sport, making friends and just being a kid.
Adams’s stores support youngsters participating in hockey, soccer, lacrosse, baseball and swimming.
As well as sports, the Cowichan Valley Tim Hortons — there are three stores in Duncan/North Cowichan, one in Lake Cowichan, one in Mill Bay and one just south of Duncan — make generous donations to Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Cowichan Hospital Foundation and Clements Centre, a local not-for-profit organization that provides services and programs that enhance the lives and children and youth with special needs and adults with developmental disabilities.
“We’ve helped employ people from Clements Centre for 15 years and it’s been great to see them working in the community,” Adams says.
The successful entrepreneur — Adams is the founder of the immensely popular Sunfest country music festival and Laketown Ranch, a venue for concerts and community events near Lake Cowichan — who is particularly proud of his involvement with the Tim Hortons camp program.
“We’ve sent over 80 kids to camps in Ontario and Alberta,” he says. “It can be life-changing, such a positive experience for financially challenged young kids.
“We send eight or 10 kids a year to camp and these kids, all of them, come from the Cowichan Valley.”
For Adams, giving back to the community is an integral part of his business philosophy.
“We’re able to do a lot of things because of our volumes at Tim Hortons. It’s great that we’re able to give back to our community,” he says.