Time to get your burger fix for a good cause, Canada, because A&W annual Burgers to Beat MS Day is returning for its 15th year.
On August 17, A&W will donate $2 from every Teen Burger sold across the country to MS Canada to directly and positively impact Canadians living with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Since its inception, Burgers to Beat MS has raised more than $19M, and to commemorate 15 years of the fundraiser, A&W is calling on all Canadians to help reach its 2023 goal of $2M.
Donations to MS Canada through Burgers to Beat MS can be made starting today.
Visit BurgersToBeatMS.ca to donate and/or round up any purchase made at your local A&W restaurant.
Power Play to a World Free of MS
Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world, with over 90,000 Canadians living with this complex and unpredictable disease.
One of them is Amber Brodie, wife of Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman, TJ Brodie, who was diagnosed with MS in 2016, after experiencing optic neuritis and losing feeling from her waist down.
On average 12 Canadians are diagnosed every day. MS alters the central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord.
Symptoms of this often-debilitating disease include impaired sensation, vision loss and fatigue.
The cause is not known and there is currently no cure, but each day, researchers working with MS Canada are learning more about the causes and zeroing in on prevention and management.
15 Years of Fundraising
The partnership between A&W Canada and MS Canada began in 2008 and its first pilot in Saskatchewan raised more than $40,000.
It soon expanded nationally and in 2016, formally launched under the Burgers to Beat MS name.
Throughout the years, the campaign has introduced new ways to donate as awareness and participation has grown.
Not even the Pandemic could stop Canadians from fundraising, as 2020 and 2021’s campaign encouraged consumers to Take-out Burgers to Beat MS.
Each year A&W franchisees go above and beyond to support Burgers to Beat MS Day with many locations continuing fundraising traditions like raffles, car shows and dunk tanks that have been in place since year one.