FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Seattle, Washington Jun 21, 2012
During Earth Month 2012, Aveda stylists at over 40 salons in Greater Puget Sound asked their clients to give for clean water. And they did, raising over $106,000 during their spring Earth Month campaign for Seattle-based non-profit Puget Soundkeeper Alliance. Gary Manuel Salon and Gary Manuel Aveda Institute were responsible for $74,870 of the total. And one stylist, Stephen Pace, raised $21,000 of it by himself, just by talking to his clients as he cut, colored and styled their hair. Some of his donors gave up to $2500 each. In addition to fundraising, local salons held neighborhood cleanups and picked up over 75 bags of trash in Belltown, Fremont and Capitol Hill.
Puget Soundkeeper Alliance (Soundkeeper) is a local environmental non-profit with an annual budget of $600,000. This unique partnership, which emphasizes common goals around clean water, raises over 1/6 of Soundkeeper’s annual budget, keeping the non-profit actively patrolling Puget Sound for pollution and engaging the community in how to keep Puget Sound clean. “The support this year from local Aveda Salons and their customers is truly remarkable,” says Chris Wilke, Puget Soundkeeper and Executive Director. “We are able to expand our programs and make a bigger impact on clean water in Puget Sound as a result.”
On a national level, earlier this month Aveda announced that they exceeded their goal of raising $4.5 million for global and local clean water projects this year; bringing Aveda to a cumulative total of over $22 million raised since 1999, $16 million for clean water initiatives all over the world, including Puget Sound. Aveda’s mission is to care for the world we live in, from the products Aveda makes to the ways in which Aveda gives back to society. At Aveda, they strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility, not just in the world of beauty, but around the world. Aveda has been a leader in environmental philanthropy since 1989, first concentrating on energy conservation, ethical sourcing, environmental packaging and waste reduction. Currently, Aveda is focusing on water conservation and protection.
The mission of Puget Soundkeeper Alliance is to protect and preserve the waters of Puget Sound by monitoring cleaning up and preventing pollution. As a locally-licensed Waterkeeper Alliance organization, Soundkeeper uses several techniques to achieve its mission including: patrolling and monitoring from the water every week; using the power granted to citizens to enforce the provisions of the Clean Water Act; and actively engaging the community in solutions that protect water quality through beach and water cleanups, such as the July 5th Fireworks Cleanup of Lake Union with Starbucks and the International Coastal Cleanup Day on September 15, 2012 and through award-winning business assistance programs like EnviroStars and the Clean Marina Washington program. Soundkeeper is bringing about real change in environmental cleanup and in the way that stormwater and wastewater are managed to protect waters throughout the Puget Sound basin.
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