June 21 marks the first official day of summer, but it's also Tropical Smoothie Cafe's favorite holiday of the year – National Flip Flop Day, a system-wide in-store fundraising event celebrating open toes and open hearts for a good cause.
On this day, Tropical Smoothie Cafe will be giving away free 24 oz. Jetty Punch Smoothies, between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., to any customer wearing flip flops at participating locations. The cafes will be collecting donations for the brand's national charity partner, Camp Sunshine, the only retreat in the nation whose mission is focused solely on addressing the effects of a life-threatening illness on every member of the immediate family – the ill child, parents, and siblings. Last year, Tropical Smoothie Cafe gave away close to 200,000 smoothies for the cause, which equated to approximately $1 million in free smoothies.
From now through June 30, customers can visit their local cafe to participate in a more traditional fundraising effort and show their support for this meaningful cause by purchasing colored Paper Flip Flops for $1 or Flip Flop Key Fobs for $5. Online donations are also accepted at www.nationalflipflopday.com.
To date, Tropical Smoothie Cafe has donated more than $1.5 million to Camp Sunshine, sending 750 children and their families to experience the camp. Last year, Tropical Smoothie Cafe raised $400,000 for Camp Sunshine and the brand plans to exceed that number in 2013 by raising $500,000.
"National Flip Flop Day is about more than Tropical Smoothie Cafe. It's about sending terminally ill children and their families to Camp Sunshine where they can focus on playing and having fun, and also interact with people like themselves, who truly understand and are intimately familiar with the experiences they are going through," says Mike Rotondo, CEO of Tropical Smoothie Cafe. "This is my favorite time of the year because our entire franchise system bands together for one central cause; it's a beautiful thing."
