1. Egg-Stravaganza
EAU CLAIRE, WIS. | APRIL 2014
The kids, the smiles on their faces and their parents yelling, “get that one over
there!”, the oversized bunny, the eggs and the candy, the spirit of Easter was truly
alive that Saturday afternoon in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Orange Leaf Headquarters (HQ) awarded grants of up to $2,500 to 22 stores in
April 2014, as part of our second annual Community Service Initiative. Stores
applied for grants to support their local community partnerships and events.
The Orange Leaf store in Eau Claire, Wis. partnered with three other local
businesses to host the 2014 “Egg Drop,” on Saturday, April 19, 2014.
General Manager of Orange Leaf Eau Claire, Alicia Schneider, and her team put
their $1,500 grant award from HQ toward costume characters, prizes, froyo
samples and more.
“We applied for the grant because I was intrigued by our CEO Reese Travis’
speech at the company’s 2014 Froyo Forum, where he urged store operators to
get involved in their local communities,” Schneider said. “Not only was he
compelling us to get involved, but he was also offering us an opportunity to
apply for help from headquarters in the form of grants.”
The Egg Drop event was held at the South Middle School in Eau Claire with over
2,500 adults and children in attendance. Once registration was complete, the kids
sat and waited anxiously in the classrooms for a helicopter to drop eggs all over
the school field.
As the helicopter approached, sounds of propellers were met with jeers from the
kids anticipating the amount of candy they were going to be able to take home
without mom and dad telling them it was too much.
As if things couldn’t get better, an oversized bunny peered its head out of the
helicopter, waved at the kids and dropped over 10,000 eggs and pieces of candy
into the egg hunt area.
Kids of all ages ran as fast as they could with their baskets and bags and grabbed
as many eggs as possible.
Most of the eggs were filled with candy, but it was impossible to ignore the
2. ecstatic looks on some of the kids’ faces as they opened their eggs to see notes
claiming they had won bicycles, scooters, DVDs and video games.
At the end of the hunt, all the kids went home with lots of prizes and candy to
last them until next Easter.
Even though most of the event was focused on the kids, the main reason why
Orange Leaf Eau Clair joined forces with three other local businesses was to raise
money and collect non-perishable food items for the Trinity Lutheran Food
Pantry. This organization provides food for over 500 families in Eau Claire and
surrounding areas each month.
In the end, over 1000 pounds of food was donated for the Trinity Food Pantry
including $143 in cash.
“It was an amazing event for the kiddos. The crowd was wild and just roared
every time the eggs fell from the sky,” said Schneider. “But the most important
part of the event was collecting non-perishable food items to help keep the
Trinity Lutheran Food Pantry stocked.”
Orange Leaf HQ believes in supporting our stores around the nation to give back
to the communities where they operate. We truly appreciate the effort the team
in Eau Claire put forth to support the Trinity Lutheran Food Pantry and the smiles
they put on kids’ faces this past Easter.