Fredericton Hot Sauce Company Donates $2.15 Per Bottle To Residential School Survivors
FREDERICTON — For every bottle of Smoked Peach sold, the Spicy Boys are donating two dollars and fifteen cents to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society.
They chose $2.15 after the 215 bodies found buried at a former residential school in BC this May.
“When we found out about the situation in Kamloops, he decided that we needed to take some action,” said Dylan Gaudet, one of the owners of Spicy Boys.
To change their label for the campaign Gaudet reached out to Kirsten Paul, an indigenous artist based in St. Mary’s First Nation. Paul reworked their label to include an orange feather with the number 215 in beads. ‘Every Child Matters’ is written underneath the feather. At all the Spicy Boy’s popups this week they are handing out stickers with the same phrase.
“We are using our social media to raise some awareness…and obviously to continue to sell the sauce and to spread the message via the label,” said Gaudet.
On June 5 when they first posted about the promotion on Facebook, they linked an additional donation page that has raised $120 so far. In school, Gaudet remembers learning about Residential Schools but said it felt sugar-coated.
“I felt like during the education process through high school and things like that they kind of made it seem like more of a boot camp and less like genocide.”
Responses from customers about the donations have been positive. Last weekend at the Northside Creators Market they sold out of the sauce.
Besides the Northside Creators Market, the Spicy boys will be at St. Andrews Market Wharf this Thursday from 8:30 am to 1 pm and the Saint John Night Market Thursday from 5 pm until 9 pm.
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“If people want to get out locally and support the cause that’s where they are able to find us,” said Gaudet.
Purchasing Smoked Peach on Spicy Boy’s website will also garner a $2.15 donation. The campaign will run for two more weeks or until they run out of labels.
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