Surfrider Foundation, MAKING WAVES, August 2004

MAKING WAVES, August 2004 issue: Table of Contents

Buffalo Exchange Teams Up with Surfrider Foundation for "Surf Day"

By Chelsea Murphy

This past April, the Surfrider Foundation partnered with clothing retailer Buffalo Exchange for a nationwide Earth Day fundraiser. Dubbed "Surf Day" in honor of the Foundation, the fundraiser helped raise funds for Surfrider through Buffalo Exchange's annual "Dollar Day" sale, which took place at twenty six stores across the country.

"This was a unique fundraiser in that quite a few of the events were taking place in cities and locations outside of our chapter network area," said Matt McClain, Marketing and Communications Director for the Surfrider Foundation. "The challenge for us was how to mobilize activists in areas like Colorado, Arizona and Las Vegas."

"Fortunately for us, Surfrider Foundation has members in all fifty states," said McClain. "I simply made a pull from our membership database and began calling members and asked them if they were willing to volunteer a couple of hours for the event."

By the day of the sale, McClain, working with Buffalo Exchange staff and volunteer intern Carrie Marshall, had found volunteers to staff information tables for nearly every store, including stores in Las Vegas, Tempe, Phoenix, Dallas, Albuquerque, and Philadelphia. Additionally, many of the store managers made efforts to create Surfrider Foundation themed displays for their stores.

"The best part about the "Surf Day" fundraiser was that it reminded people living in an urban environment that their actions affect the quality of water not only on the beaches but in their communities too," said Philadelphia activist Nicole Zapata. "People walking by seemed to be surprised that we were raising money to help keep the beaches clean on a crowded city block."

Of course, several Surfrider Foundation chapters also turned out to assist in the fundraiser, including the Seattle, San Francisco, South Bay and San Diego chapters among others.

"Many customers were impressed that we actually had three volunteer speakers in the store educating customers on the Surfrider Foundation." said Austin store manager Leslie LeCroy, whose location was covered by activists from Surfrider Foundation's Texas Chapter.


	Above: Buffalo Exchange employees from the Pacific Beach store attend a recent San Diego Chapter beach clean-up. Left: A Surfrider Foundation display at the Tempe, Arizona, Buffalo Exchange store. Photos courtesy of Michelle Livingston/Buffalo Exchange

"The Surfrider Foundation is so cool! We had six activists show up to help with the dollar sale. They were so into it," said Julie Bernath, store manager for the Pacific Beach Buffalo Exchange in San Diego. "They made things a lot of fun. They hustled the raffle tickets and talked up not only Surfrider but Buffalo Exchange too. We will definitely be doing more events with the San Diego Chapter in the future!"

All in all, the "Surf Day" fundraiser went better than expected, with the Buffalo Exchange stores raising over $22,000 for Surfrider Foundation. 100% of proceeds from the event will go toward the upcoming Surfrider Foundation 20th Anniver-sary Coastal Summit, being held in Costa Mesa, California this October.

"In addition to the money raised, I'm excited that Buffalo Exchange increased awareness in our employees, customers, local businesses, and media for "Surf Day." We did this through fliers, raffles, displays, and the placement of Surfrider volunteers at our stores. And, I think we demonstrated that there are opportunities for Surfrider to gain membership in the Southwest," said Michelle Livingston, Marketing Director for Buffalo Exchange.

For their part, Buffalo Exchange has raised over $95,000 for environmental causes through Dollar Day Sales on Earth Day since 1997. Buffalo Exchange works to protect the environment by reusing and recycling clothing at their resale stores.

To find out more about Buffalo Exchange, visit them online at http://www.buffaloexchange.com