Alberta woman gives away 133,000 Rum & Butter bars in a ‘whirlwind’ of charity

Crystal Regehr Westergard has made many people very happy with her 133,000 Rum & Butter chocolate bars.

The Camrose, Alta., founder of Canadian Candy Nostalgia recently found himself in a pickle when the late pandemic left him with an unwieldy excess of classic confectioneries – all with a best before date in June.

But a few news stories and many, many emails later, Westergard has given away all the extra treats to a host of Canadian charities, food banks, churches and volunteer organizations.

It feels good to do good, he said – but he hopes it will never come again.

“I think I’ll look back and say I’d love to do it,” Westergard said. “But when you’re in a hurricane, it’s a lot. Yeah, a lot.”

WATCH: Canadian company’s chocolate backlog:

Rena Pilon has also had a lot, but she is very happy.

Pilon is the communications and safety officer for the Bradwell Volunteer Fire Department in Saskatchewan, which took 16,000 bars of Rum & Butter from Westergard’s hands.

The volunteer firefighters, who serve the community in and around the Rural Township of Blucher, Sask., plan to sell their bar to raise money for much-needed new equipment.

“We are very proud of our little department, and all of our volunteers are very excited to come out and try to sell some of this candy,” Pilon said.

The shipment — 1.5 pallets of bars weighing about 770 pounds — arrived on Thursday, with free shipping from Purolator.

“When we read about Canadian Candy Nostalgia’s creative call to give chocolate away instead of releasing it, we knew we could help,” Purolator spokeswoman Courtney Reistetter said in an email.

“The chocolate bar will be put to good use by the fire department in fundraising efforts, making it a win-win all around.”

It took a lot of coordination to make it happen, Pilon said, but he thanked everyone involved.

“Everything really helped us a lot,” he said. “It’s just a miracle, really, that it all came together the way it did.”

How did that happen?

Canadian Candy Nostalgia began in 2018, when Westergard made it his mission to revive his mother’s favorite chocolate bar, Kuba Lunch.

It was such a hit that in 2021, he decided to revive another discontinued classic, the Rum & Butter bar – a non-alcoholic candy, rum-flavored, and his wife’s childhood favorite.

But the pandemic’s shortages and work delays meant that shipments that were supposed to arrive in succession, instead arrived all at once. And with a best-before date in June, they can’t move fast enough in their usual partner stores.

It’s a sugary sweet nightmare for Westergard, who also works full-time at a physiotherapy practice in Camrose. So he decided to tell his story to the public, doing an interview with CBC Radio As it happensGlobe and Mail, and even some international news.

“It’s out all over the world,” he said.

Before long, her inbox was flooded with people looking for a Rum & Butter bar.

A lot of people just want a box or two, which doesn’t suit their situation. Others are messaging from South Korea or South Africa, they say, which is impossible.

But they also found some that fit very well.

Finally, at the top of the Saskatchewan fire department, he told us that he donated pallets to the Calgary Drop-in Center, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Vladimir Calgary, Run Calgary, Run Like Ole, Varsity Church Calgary, and several food banks.

‘It brings back a lot of memories’

If you still want some Rum & Butter bars, Canadian Candy Nostalgia is sold in stores across the country, mostly Western Canada and the east coast, as well as online through Amazon.

And for the next little while, you can get some too by contacting the Bradwell Volunteer Fire Department.

Pilon said he hopes to dig some up.

“My mother is 71 years old, and she remembers it clearly. And I remember her going to the store and paying 25 cents for a Rum & Butter chocolate bar when I was a kid,” she said.

“We are just thankful to be part of the journey, bringing this chocolate back to Canada for people to try, and for the fire department to share with their families, and for them to have the opportunity to try Rum & Butter. bar.”