for more than 10 years tropical smoothie
cafe has raised funds for camp sunshine
it is a Maine based organization devoted
to providing a healthy happy camp
experience to children with
life-threatening illnesses and their
families the best part is it is
completely free of charge now through
June the 30th you can make donations to
help those kids and their parents and
their siblings just really give them
something to look forward to and you can
do it at local tropical smoothie cafes
so joining us now to talk about it
district manager Neal white thank you so
much for coming on I've been looking
forward to this segment not because of
the spread but because of spreading good
news and sunshine that's what it's all
about
absolutely well it really is a special
organization absolutely over ten years
it's been 6.2 million dollars that we've
raised for them we plan on raising 1.2
million this year it all kicked off at
the beginning of May and we run through
the end of June we have a special
flip-flop day on June 4th yes where I
love that every year I look at your free
sunshine smoothie for 16 ounce with this
nation with a donation absolutely we
we'd sell you a nice sunshine for a
dollar or more to hang your name up and
we also have the five percent off card
that we give for any $5 or more donation
that lasts through the end of the year
for you so there's so many people that
tropical smoothies part of their weekly
routine they come in they grab a
smoothie they grab a wrap a salad a
quesadilla now they can give back
absolutely and and it's fun to see the
the energy that it develops as we go
it starts off people don't earn aware of
what camp sunshine is but over the ten
years we've definitely sent some folks
we plan to raise $2,500 per location
which is what it costs to send a whole
family up to camp and it gets exciting
as we get nearer and closer to that
$2,500 some of those families are from
our area absolutely local families if
anybody knows of somebody that's close
to a life-threatening illness we send
the whole family and they can find us on
tropical smoothie cafe.com what's the
feedback that you've gotten from this
over the past decade Neal I
actually had the pleasure of meeting a
camp family that you know most of time
you have the sick child unfortunately
and the parents we actually give them a
date night while they're at camp not
sure when the last time they had a date
night because everything going on and so
much else we also take care of the
siblings too and they are so
appreciative of it and means a whole
bunch it's really incredible to be able
to do this and I'm sure that your
employees enjoy it too because they're
not just serving good food they're
serving happiness absolutely and that
the passion that comes through
especially when you're giving back it
really adds to it so okay so what's the
biggest thing that you can do obviously
you want as many people as possible to
come out to flip-flop day which is June
the 14th I've always got that on my
calendar that's correct but you can do
it starting today I will you started at
the beginning of May so every day that
you walk in and you come in and get your
daily sunshine or Island green smoothie
or Bahama Mama and we will take care of
you so maybe you should ask them which
ones are really gonna benefit Camp
sunshine absolutely the sunshine
smoothie is a a campaign that we started
a couple years ago as that as that is
the yes it's a very citrusy might as
well smoothie absolutely the part of the
proceeds year-round from that smoothie
go to Camp sunshine okay that's a great
way to celebrate and finally we got to
talk about all this stuff here as new
items some classics that's right we got
it we got a Santa Fe quesadilla that's a
big hits a newer we've developed some
presses that it's got the explosion of
flavor and there's fresh from yes
absolutely the roasted tomato salsa
really tops it off one of our classics
is the chipotle chicken quesadilla
I'm sorry chipotle chicken flatbread I
might have to use this smoothie too a
talented I think Vic's had that before
one of our golden gems and hidden
secrets that Vic won't participate in is
a peanut butter banana crunch next time
next time we're out of town 18 grams of
protein and therefore a breakfast the
only we appreciate you think you're
coming on on be a tropical smoothie cafe
you can donate now through June the 30th
once again national football de Jun 14 s
will receive a free 16-ounce sunshine
smoothie when they visit a cafe
while wearing flip-flops from 2 to 7 of
course they're encouraged to donate to
Camp sunshine Laura no say via sip here