Gulf Coast: How we can Work Together to Help Communities in Need
David C. Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 4:17PM There's no way to sugarcoat it (or try to make it look better than it is) -- what happened in the Gulf has been a disaster for the surrounding wildlife and communities. Here in Austin, we’re fortunate to not be directly affected, but we're only a few hundred miles from the Louisiana coastline – and many within our family of customers have been strongly affected by the event. Even restaurants far from the coast that serve seafood are seeing sales decline as consumers are wary of fish that may originate from the Gulf region.
As our most recent question for our Facebook contest, we wanted to ask our users how they have been personally (and professionally) affected by the oil spill -- or even if they have not, what they could possibly do to help those that are. We have been humbled by your responses and great ideas, and a number of you had questions about what you could do to help. So, we wanted to put together a list of ideas for how you can help, and reputable organizations in case you are looking to donate your time or resources to clean up and help the people and wildlife in these communities return to normalcy.
Before we dive into that list, we wanted to mention how we are going to do our part – I’ve started personally calling some of our affected customers in the area to offer our support, and we are going to waive our monthly subscription fee for two months for about 25 of our customers that we identified as independently-owned small businesses in the region. It may only a drop in the bucket, but it’s one way that we can directly give back to restaurants and small business owners that are struggling as a result of the crisis.
And now, here are some ideas that you have provided, along with others that we brainstormed and some great organizations that are helping with the cause. We strongly encourage you to do your part to bring aid to these communities.
