Published: August 14, 2006
Austin Area Schools Benefit From Dirty Laundry
Westbank Dry Cleaning donates more than $40,000 to schools
Austin, TX (rushprnews) - Westbank Dry Cleaning launched Project School Bell with the goal of fundraising for area K-12 schools in a year-round program. Growing from six to 65 schools in just three years, the locally owned business is proud to have donated more than $40,000 to help support education.
Westbank Dry Cleaning donates three percent of pre-tax purchases to any Austin public or private area K-12 school. All six locations have a red wooden school-house display, where customers can drop in their cleaning invoices. The customer writes the name of their school on the invoice, and quarterly the local dry cleaner writes a check to their Booster Club or PTA.
Supporting education is an ongoing responsibility that Westbank's owners, William and Angie Charnes, feel strongly about. The couple, who has school-aged children of their own, say they see first hand the funding struggles that schools are facing. "Schools were continually coming to us asking for donations", says William Charnes. "We wanted to design a program that would both streamline our donations and make a difference to our customers by choosing where the money goes. We see how deeply our customers care about their children's schools."
The couple recently redesigned their website to include a community page highlighting Project School Bell at http://www.westbankdrycleaning.com/community/community.html
Schools receiving $100 or more in donations have their logo and link featured on the page and when someone scrolls over the link, the cumulative donation for that campus pops up. The Charnes hope the new website page will increase awareness and encourage more families to use the program. "We promote the program in our stores and through direct mail and newspaper advertising, but since it's still fairly new, some customers still aren't aware of it," says Charnes.
Last year the Charnes' reached into their pockets a little deeper and began an additional matching program benefiting the Eanes Education Foundation. From August 1 until October 31, Westbank matches all cumulative E.I.S.D. campuses totals with an additional 3 percent donation to EEF. They have decided to continue the program on an annual basis. Former EEF President Wally Moore had this to say about the program:
"Westbank Dry Cleaning has been at the forefront of business partners supporting the Eanes Independent School District for nearly a decade! Their very generous "Project School Bell" provides much needed financial support both at the district level through the Eanes Education Foundation, and to each of the nine EISD campuses through the booster clubs. With three locations in the Eanes area, it is easy to do business with a quality cleaner and it feels good knowing that they care about the EISD schools as much as we do. What a great win - win!"
Many thanks Angie and William for all you do,
Your friends at the Eanes Education Foundation
Wally Moore
2005-06 President of the Eanes Educational Foundation
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