08/09/2026
The story going around about Pauls pizza regarding Sunshine Haven Society is False. Please call the number associated with the Society and get the full story. There are issues with-in the society itself.
We’d like to clarify what happened, as the post gives a misleading impression of the situation.
Our Pizza With a Purpose program is funded entirely by our company. We donate $2 from every pizza sold on the designated fundraiser day directly from our own profits. We do not ask our customers for donations, and no customer money was collected for this fundraiser.
Approximately three months ago, we were contacted regarding a fundraiser for a dog with cancer. The two individuals involved were both members of the society at the time. Throughout the entire process, our company’s direct contact was one particular individual, (Erin Brazil) who communicated with us regarding the fundraiser and provided the information we needed to proceed.
That individual was also the person who promoted the fundraiser extensively on her personal page. The fundraiser information and posts we saw were coming from her personal account, rather than from the society’s page.
Additionally, when we looked for a way to contact the society, the phone number publicly associated with the society was still connected to this same individual’s phone number, which further reinforced that she was our legitimate point of contact for the fundraiser. At the time, we had no reason to know that she had subsequently left the society.
Once the fundraiser was completed, we prepared the cheque based on the information that had been provided to us. The individual we had been communicating with then came to pick up the cheque.
At that point, we realized that the name on the cheque did not match the person picking it up. Because we did not want to release a cheque to someone when the names and authorization did not match, we contacted the phone number associated with the society/fundraiser.
That conversation is when we became aware that there was a disagreement between the two individuals about who should receive the donation. We were informed that the individual who had originally organized and promoted the fundraiser had personally paid the veterinary expenses for the dog and believed the donation should be made payable to her. The other individual wanted the cheque made payable to herself- currently with society.
Both individuals had been members of the society, but one had since left. From our perspective, we had been communicating with the same person throughout the entire fundraiser, the fundraiser had been promoted through her personal Facebook account, and the publicly listed society phone number was still associated with her. We therefore had no reason to believe there was a dispute over who was authorized to receive the funds until the cheque was ready.
We offered a simple solution: we could issue two separate cheques and split the donation between the two parties. That option was declined.
We then offered to give the society the a future donation date, so the society could still receive funds. That option was also declined because the individual did not want to make another trip to our location. We also offered to mail the cheque so she would not have to drive back from Edmonton.
At no point did we refuse to provide the donation, nor was the money “stolen” or taken from customers. The donation comes directly from our company and our profits. We do not collect money from our customers for our Pizza With a Purpose fundraisers.
We are happy to honour the donation, but we cannot responsibly release a cheque when there is a dispute about who is authorized to receive it. We have made multiple attempts to find a reasonable solution.
We are sharing this clarification because we feel it is important that our customers and community have the full context before conclusions are drawn from the original post.
Thanks
