Article by Galen Simmons, Stratford Beacon Herald
As Stratford’s first cannabis retailer prepares to open new stores in Woodstock and Hanover, management and staff at Crossroads Cannabis are celebrating another milestone – raising more than $14,000 for the Support Our Troops Fund through its weekly Red Friday initiative.
Owner Bob Rowe and his staff at the Stratford store have been wearing red and donating a dollar from every purchase made on Fridays since last July in support of the fund that offers a variety of programming and financial assistance to help the recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration of members of the Canadian Armed Forces who have returned from service with mental illness or physical injuries.
“We’ve already made a $10,000 donation in early January, and then we have accumulated another $4,000 since then that’s in a fund that will get transferred to them, probably in June with whatever else we collect,” Rowe said. “We started July 1 and it’s just gone over so well with the support in Stratford. We’ve had people that actually just come on Fridays to buy their cannabis … so that they support the troops.” Even before opening Crossroads Cannabis, Rowe raised more than $100,000 for the Support Our Troops Fund through another venture called Freedom Syrup – a maple-syrup operation in Huron County manned by a group of volunteers.