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BY DEBORAH STEKL KNUTSON –
This summer more than 615 at-risk children filled their backpacks with memories of the outdoors as part of the first annual Happy Campers program, a joint fundraising effort between Starbucks Coffee Company and The Salvation Army. Nearly 30,000 Starbucks customers donated a total of $109,433 at more than 650 stores in California and portions of Arizona and Nevada. The fundraising program, launched in conjunction with National Salvation Army Week, ran May 15 through June 30, 2000.
“With the generosity of nearly 30,000 Starbucks customers, we are able to enrich hundreds of children’s lives by sending them to a local summer camp,” said Don Nose,Starbucks regional marketing director, southwest zone.
“Many of the Happy Camper recipients are children who have never seen a lake or mountains. By taking at-risk children and exposing them to a life outside of the inner-city, we provide positive experiences and a lifetime of memories,” said Captain Robert L. Rudd, Territorial Community Relations and Development Secretary.
Due in part to the success of this summer’s “Happy Campers” and last Christmas’s “Holiday Angels” programs in the West, the Army will partner with Starbucks on a national Christmas toy drive this holiday season. The program is scheduled to kick-off on November 15 at more than 2,500 Starbucks stores across the United States and Canada.
