The Hardee’s Rise and Shine for Heat And The Schnucks Scan and Give for Heat Fundraisers Give $33,000 to Heat-Up St. Louis, Inc.
The annual Hardee’s Rise and Shine for Heat fundraiser sold 20,000 Sausage and Egg Biscuit sandwiches and raised more than $25,000.00 and the Schnucks Scan and Give fundraiser raised more than $8,000 in donations to help Missouri and Illinois residents who still cannot afford to pay their winter gas, electric, propane and oil home heating bills. The fundraiser for Hardee’s Rise and Shine was supported by all major broadcast and print media. The Schnucks Scan and Give for Heat fundraiser was sponsored by Schnucks, KTVI Fox2, and The Pasta House Co. to benefit Heat-Up St. Louis, Inc., a nonprofit energy assistance and advocacy group.
On Valentine’s Day, February 14, more than eighty company and franchised-owned Hardee’s Restaurants in the Illinois and Missouri area sold about 20,000 Sausage and Egg Biscuit sandwiches for the special price of $1.00. In addition 300 volunteers from the media, civic, business, and fraternal communities served as celebrity counter helpers, soliciting an additional $5,700 in small cash donations from Hardee’s customers.
Hardee’s also underwrote all administrative costs of this project, so that each dollar donated goes directly to helping needy families in Missouri and Illinois. The organization also announced that it will continue to take winter donations through April 30. Larger donations may continue to be given by logging onto the donated www.heatupstlouis.org website. In addition tax-deductible donations through checks maybe sent to Heat-Up St. Louis, C/O Truman Bank, P. O. Box 9330, St. Louis, MO 63117.
“Despite the consistently warm winter weather, homes have burned down and children have died due to a lack of safe home heating environments, said Gentry W. Trotter, founder and president of the 20 member, all-volunteer board of directors. “These funds are needed immediately to aid area neighbors, who are still held hostages by unreasonable bills from the local utility companies.”
These Rise and Shine funds and the $8,000 additional funds collected from the Schnucks Scan and Give fundraiser, sponsored by Fox2, will immediately aid about 650 people through emergency heat grants which will be distributed to ten social service and community agencies covering about 15 Missouri and Illinois counties.
“Many social service and community action agencies may run out of state and federal funds by the end of this month. The weaken economy has also made it really difficulty for the working poor to play catch up,” said Reverend Earl E. Nance, Jr., campaign chairperson. “So the need for this $33,000 is greater than ever, because it may be one of the only alternatives of funding available.”