Hardee’s 8th Annual Rise and Shine For Heat-Up St. Louis Fundraiser Draws Thousands and A Record-Breaking $75,000.00 Raised, So Far

Hardee’s Does Canisters, All Weekend Long, During Cold Bitter Winter

60,000 HARDEE’S BISCUITS SOLD TODAY

The 8th annual Hardee’s Rise and Shine for Heat-Up St. Louis project, the largest annual fundraiser for the regional, not-for-profit, all-volunteer utility assistance charity raised so far, a recording breaking $75,000. Last winter about $60,000 was raised. Due to the severe cold weather this year, Hardee’s is keeping up this weekend, its canister collection efforts only, in all of the restaurants, seeking additional public donations.

About 60,000 made-from-scratch Hardee’s Sausage and Egg Biscuits and Egg Biscuits honoring Lent were sold this Friday from 6:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. at St. Louis area Hardee’s restaurants in Missouri and Illinois with about $15,000 in small donations gathered by 300 volunteers. The charity services about 16 Missouri and Illinois counties, including the City of St. Louis. The consistent cold weather is hiking up utility bills, making them not affordable for many needy people, seniors and the disabled.

This year the majority of the electronic media participated road-block somewhere in the morning breakfast time frame. Hardee’s officials said that those locations mostly reported double increases from last winter.

“We are shocked beyond believe that the St. Louis region opened the hearts and pocket to help less fortunate neighbors, said Kevin McGowan, board president of Heat-Up St. Louis. “These are tough times and we appreciate the generosity of the volunteers, media, Hardee’s, and it’s dedicated customer based.”

Larger donations still may be sent to: Heat-Up St. Louis, c/o UMB Bank, P.O. Box 868, St. Louis, MO 63188, or the secured website at www.heatupstlouis.org.

Heat-Up St. Louis, a regional safety-net project began almost eight years ago, and has received more than $2 million in public and private donations and helped more than 100,000 people.

Also leading area volunteers this year were, St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay, Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, Kevin X. McGowan, president of Blue Urban and board president of Heat-Up St. Louis, Dr. James Knight, vascular surgeon, and vice-chair and Melanie Dileo, state director of Citigroup and board chairwoman of Heat-Up St. Louis.

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