The Montreal Ritz-Carlton's Toy Donations Post Went So Viral They Had To Change It

It got over a million shares, and the Ritz is still committed to donating toys.
Montreal's Ritz-Carlton Toy Donations Post Went So Viral They Had To Change It
Michel Bussieres | Dreamstime
Staff Writer

A hugely popular post from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal caught the hotel and Fondation CHU Sainte-Justine by surprise on Monday morning, prompting organizers to adjust it.

According to the foundation's spokesperson, Jade Gratton, the number of times the post was shared was "a surprise for them." 

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Over 1 Million Shares On The Ritz-Carlton's Instagram post

The post, which announced that the Ritz-Carlton would donate one toy per share, was apparently shared over one million times. 

"Never in a million years did we think the post was going to go so viral," said Katia Piccolino, spokesperson for the Ritz-Carlton Montreal. 

Gratton told MTL Blog that while the Fondation CHU Sainte-Justine appreciates such an incredible response, they don't necessarily need a million toy donations. 

The Ritz-Carlton will still honour the donation promise and will send 1,000 toys to the CHU Sainte-Justine on December 20.

"We've been working with the CHU Sainte-Justine for six years and we didn't take down the campaign because it was fraudulent, we took down the campaign because it went viral," far surpassing goals, said Piccolino. 

Now, the hotel is encouraging Montrealers to keep supporting Sainte-Justine's initiatives.

"We encourage people to go on the CHU Sainte-Justine and donate to their 'Tree of Life' campaign. If everybody who shared this goes back to donate on their link, how beautiful is that?" 

postritz-carltonhotelchusainte-justinesharedmilliondonatecampaign
MontrealNewsNews
  • Teddy Elliot
  • Teddy Elliot
    Teddy Elliot was a Staff Writer for MTL Blog. He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec and has a B.A. in Literature. Teddy has been a journalist for three years and was once an English teacher. His creative work has appeared in The Blasted Tree and Parenthetical Magazine. When he's not chasing scoops, Teddy can be found cheering on Aston Villa and listening to 80s power ballads. He was shortlisted for a Digital Publishing Award in 2021.

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