'Pay it Forward' Friday at Mountain FM

Everyone at Mountain FM was so part in the Kootenay Society for Community Living’s ‘Pay It Forward Day’ last Friday (October 11).  This incredible initiative was part of BC Community Living month and hopefully inspired random acts of kindness in our community.

I was so fortunate to get to spend the afternoon at A&W in Castlegar, I got to have the chance help be the messenger for Mountain and A&W’s random acts of kindness, part of the ‘Pay It Forward Chain’. We hoped to start the random acts of kindness by handing out free food (for orders under $10) to people coming through the drive-thru. I know I would have been stoked to have my cash ready at the drive-thru window, only to find out that my meal was free!

Morning Rocks co-host Darren McPeake visited A&W in Trail and the hosts from our sister station 1035 the Bridge in Nelson were at Grounded. 

People seemed to be really receptive to the ‘Pay It Forward’ concept. We had lovely stories come in online about people on the receiving end of random acts of kindness and from people who had paid it forward themselves, starting the chain of generosity.

I had so much fun with the team at Castlegar A&W, they even paid it forward for to me with an order of (my favourite) sweet potato fries. I can’t wait until next year, I know this was a building block for what is to come next year when this initiative grows bigger and better!

#GETINMYBelly: McDonald's Is Launching Mighty Wings

McDonald’s (American McDonalds) will be releasing a new menu item in four days. If you are going to the States pick me up at least a dozen of McDonald’s new chicken wings. I am pretty excited about this, my first marketing/promotions job was at McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada and my first real-world growing up job was at Greenwood McDonald’s (in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley) back when I was 16.

I never thought I would be one of those kids hauling-butt working for the man, I fully intended on living summers of privilege relaxing by the pool driving my friends around, working casually at my parent’s businesses. That was the plan until I smashed up my moms mini-van learning to park (I’m not the world’s best driver by the way). I was forced to spend my entire summer leading into Grade 12 working at our local McDonald’s, please note I am from a very small town so working at McDonald’s still meant a 30 minute drive each way to work.

Anyways, this has resulted in a lifelong fascination and fierce loyalty to McDonald’s. My boyfriend’s parents make fun of me because whenever we travel I have to test the waters at the local McDonald’s on our vacation. By test the waters I totally mean eat a bunch of greasy food and call my former bosses and tell them about the wonderful things America has that we will someday inherit.

Some of these things are:

-20 chicken nuggets for $5 (more than enough to share as a snack, perfect if you are dining late at night and need something to tide you over until a fancy-smancy supper)

-Chicken McBites (we had these bad boys in Canada for a short time, America had them much longer than we did and they even had spicy McBites)

-Frozen Lemonades (need I say more?)

-Coke FreeStyle Drink Machines (These guys are truly magical, hundreds of soft-drinks at your finger tips. I’m not even sure some of these pop flavours exist in the real world. My entire trip to New York was spent marveling and talking about how fascinating these next-generation machines are, I think I spent more time looking at the Coke FreeStyle fountain pop dispenser than any exhibit at the Museum of Natural History).

And now chicken wings will be added to America’s favourite menu, I am thrilled. I think that is one area McDonald’s is lacking, an appetizer menu. Sides are super trendy these days, developing options was one thing McDonald’s excelled at during the advent of the fast-food side-salad. With other fast-food restaurants taking the lead on this I think we will have to wait and see McDonald’s come up with a true game changer because they are innovators in the field and offering up the same sweet potato fries every other chain has would be kind of boring (I would totally still be ordering them, they are delicious).

Chicken wings will do for now, with the release of these new menu options I may just have to take a trip south of the boarder a little sooner than originally planned. McDonald’s Chicken Wings will hit stores next week on September 9^th.

Mc#MightyWings, they are going to be epic. 

Kate’s First DQ Miracle Treat Day

Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to visit Castlegar Dairy Queen for Miracle Treat Day. I had a great time hanging out with the crew of Miracle Makers for two hours; they even let me make my first blizzard!

Okay, it was a little messy (and slow) but I think we all learned something in the process. I should never go back to working in fast food and that the people of Castlegar are extremely generous blizzard lovers. There was a constant demand for blizzards all afternoon; the poor staff at Castlegar did not have a minute to break all afternoon! They did not mind though, all smiles they made ‘fan food’ and kept the masses cool in the crazy +30 degree weather!

Take a look at my first experience making a blizzard:

Here is a clip of some of my new friends who took part in Miracle Treat Day from both sides of the counter!

DQ Miracle Treat Day truly is a great cause, 100% of Blizzard sale proceeds go to the Children’s Miracle Network of Hospitals including BC’s own BC Children’s Hospital. Dairy Queen’s across Canada took part in a great fun-filled day, raising money for an amazing cause!

I may not be pro quite yet, but I could do the Blizzard flip (this was taken a few minutes later).

Maple Goodness

As mentioned before, I consider myself a foodie. 

Mountain FM recently began running commercials for Tim Horton's new 'Maple Flatbread Panini' and I was instantly intrigued. Two of my favorite things, maple anything and breakfast... only one little problem, I don't eat bread. To celebrate the one-month anniversary of my hiring here at Mountain FM I decided to treat myself with a sweet start to the day.

I gave in to bread and it was SO worth the bread hangover I am facing now. From the moment the counter attendant passed me the sandwich my car was enveloped with the sweet, sweet smell of maple. I almost pulled over to eat it because it was nearly impossible to make it to the station with the tempting smell of maple delicious-ness.  I do think the sandwich would have been better with the hickory smoked ham I asked for, but the sausage was okay too. The smell alone was worth the money, if you like maple you have got to go to Tim Horton's and try it out.