Press release from Buncombe County Special Olympics:
(Asheville, NC) Buncombe County Special Olympics is a volunteer-driven, donation-funded program designed to create sporting opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The program’s efforts focus on inclusionary programming that builds connections between Special Olympics athletes and the community at large.
In an attempt to move away from labor intensive fundraising campaigns that often pull volunteers from other critical program needs such as coaching and transporting athletes, Buncombe County Special Olympics in launching our second annual “Coffee for Champions” program. The intent of the program is to partner with coffee shops, cafes, and restaurants throughout Asheville and Buncombe County to help communicate awareness of the program and to raise funds through a more crowd-sourced approach. Buncombe County Special Olympics has virtually no administrative cost burden, so money raised during this campaign will go directly to programming for athletes.
Buncombe County Special Olympics volunteers have started recruiting local shops to participate for the 2017 campaign. As of 8/31/2017, we have 11 coffee shops/restaurants committed to the campaign. (1) King Daddy’s Chicken and Waffles, (2) Ivory Road Cafe and Kitchen, (3)Fill My Cup Cafe, (4) Vortex Doughnuts, (5) Dynamite Roasting Company, (6) City Bakery-Charlotte Street, (7) City Bakery-Biltmore Avenue, (8) Biltmore Coffee Roasters, (9) Mosaic Cafe and Coffee House, (10) Corner Kitchen, and (11) Trade and Lore Coffee.
Organizers are asking that each participating location donate a penny from each cup of coffee sold throughout the month of September to the program. Buncombe County Special Olympics volunteer, Karla Furnari says of the effort, “It is important to our athletes to know they have a whole community behind them and as we saw with this campaign last year, there was not a location we couldn’t where we didn’t feel welcome. We look forward to engaging our athletes yet again with community members over the next month and then over the years to come.”
Buncombe County Special Olympics is looking to recruit as many coffee shops and businesses that sell coffee as possible to participate in the month long campaign which will generate a new base of community support and highlight the power of small-scale collective support.
Participating business will be featured on the campaigns website (coffeeforchampions.org) along with a map that helps coffee connoisseurs locate those establishments. The program will also use its social media channels to help promote participating business throughout the month.
It is not too late to sign your business up to participate. Signups are ongoing throughout the whole month of September. Contact us by emailing special.olympics@buncombecounty.org or going to our website (coffeeforchampions.org) and clicking the signup tab.
Buncombe County Special Olympics is a year round athletics program for individuals with intellectual disabilities. For more information on the Spring Games or for general information on the program visit http:///www.buncombecountyspecialolympics.org, e-mail special.olympics@buncombecounty.org, or call 828.250.4265. Information can also be found at https://www.facebook.com/buncombecountyspecialolympics/.
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