TORONTO, Ontario – An annual event started in Atlantic Canada to celebrate the contributions that convenience store retailers make to the communities they serve will go Canada-wide for the first time on August 30.

According to Satinder Chera, president of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, C-Store Day has become such a major small business event in Atlantic Canada that there is no better time than Canada's 150th anniversary to make it a national celebration.

“C-Store Day is a real community-based event because convenience stores are an integral part of every community where they are located,” Chera said. “Local politicians and other community leaders volunteer to do 15-minute ‘shifts’ serving customers and fundraising, while store staff gets really involved with special promotions and tasty giveaways like hotdogs, hamburgers and cupcakes.”

This year’s fundraising partner will be Children’s Wish Foundation. Major corporate sponsors include convenience store retailers Parkwood Fuel, Couche-Tard, Circle K, Needs Convenience, MacEwen Petroleum and North Atlantic Petroleum.

“We’ve had a great C-Store Day partnership with the Atlantic Convenience Stores Association in Atlantic Canada,” said Rea Ganesh, national director of development for the Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada. “And we’re very pleased and excited now to be part of this national event and expanding the opportunities to be able to grant more wishes to children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses.”

C-Store Day 2017 will be a true coast-to-coast event, ranging from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador in the east, to Victoria, British Columbia, in the west. The names and locations of all participating retail locations can be found online at www.cstoreday.ca.