Leo Hughes has been a reverend at Arnprior’s St. Andrew Presbyterian for 31 years, and anyone who knows him knows he loves Coca-Cola.
“You wash your car with Pepsi and you drink Coca-Cola,” joked Hughes when speaking with CTV News.
But the 93-year-old hasn’t had a sip of the iconic beverage for roughly 30 years since being diagnosed as diabetic.
That’s when he decided to do the next best thing with his favourite drink.
“If you can’t drink it, why don’t you save it? And so I’ve been saving for 40 years.”
Over the past four decades, Hughes has collected thousands of pieces of Coca-Cola memorabilia from all over the world, including bottles, signs, hats, balls, and barbecues—some worth hundreds of dollars.
Now, he’s selling it all.
Partnering with the Arnprior Lions Club, Hughes is hoping his collection can help raise enough money to purchase a new CT scanner for the Arnprior Regional Hospital.
It was an idea, Hughes says, inspired by his late wife’s experience.
“My wife who died eight weeks ago wasn’t very well and her doctor prescribed a CT scan, and she waited, and she waited, and she waited,” he explained.
“She waited almost a whole year to find out there was nothing wrong. What about the people in Arnprior and McNab-Braeside, in Pakenham and Fitzroy Harbour, right around here that have to go here, there, and everywhere? Are they waiting that long?”
Bruce Bidgood with the Arnprior Lions Club says the Coca-Cola collection has been a hit in just the short time it has been on sale.
“We’re hoping to get $20,000. We’re going to be breaking the $10,000 mark soon,” Bidgood tells CTV News. “A Coca-Cola collection is probably one of the most recognized and most sought after collections in the world.”
A CT scanner allows physicians to take 3D images, while MRI’s or ultra sounds only produce 2D images.
Ben Gardiner, executive director of the Arnprior Regional Health Foundation, says the successful purchase of a CT scanner would be the hospital’s first.
“It’s a very urgent, life-saving piece of equipment as an asset for our community and the people who visit the hospital.”
Hughes’s collection will be on display for viewing or purchase at the Arnprior Shopping Mall until the end of January, or until everything is sold.
Hughes says that while he is trying to sell as much of it as he can, he did keep one item.
“A Blue Jays can.”
