FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Laura Beck for EcoClean
[email protected] 512-786-1098 EcoClean PROPS Program Selects Theatre Action Project as Sixth Non Profit Recipient of Sales Proceeds Austin’s Eco-Friendly Garment Cleaner Focuses on Community With Green Cleaning And Local Non Profit Fundraising Austin, TX, February 8, 2012 – Today, the second Wednesday of February, when you take your clothing into Austin’s EcoClean, 5% percent of your sale automatically goes to Theatre Action Project, as it will for every other Wednesday this month. As the sixth designee of the EcoClean PROPS program, Austin’s Theatre Action Project (TAP) receives 5% of all sales for every Wednesday of the month of February. TAP follows previous non profit designees including Hill Country Conservancy, SafePlace, Austin Lyric Opera, Save Our Springs (SOS) Alliance and Keep Austin Beautiful (KAB). The PROPS program is one more way EcoClean adds value to the Austin community. As an eco-friendly garment cleaner, EcoClean’s very business focus is a value to Austin. Its method, professional wet cleaning, is a green approach to garment cleaning, that is surely healthier and better for the end consumer and clothing wearer, but measurably better for our Austin environment too. Traditional dry cleaning is a chemical based process that has not evolved nor improved since its invention in the 1940’s. And while that process and those chemicals may have been OK for Don Draper’s world, we now have much higher standards – or we should. In additional to an eco-friendly approach to business since opening in 1996, EcoClean has always focused on community involvement and betterment, like city-wide free pick up and delivery, and the PROPS program. PROPS, put into place September 2011, is community partner program designed to create positive change in the environment and social fabric of Austin. By partnering with local non-profit organizations each month, EcoClean gives its customers an easy way to make a difference, and helps spread awareness of the issues facing the Austin community and the powerful organizations working to solve them. Each month, EcoClean selects a non profit and donates 5% of all sales every Wednesday of that month to that non profit. EcoClean, with its first five PROPS partners, has given over $2,000 to charities to date. Theatre Action Project is the sixth PROPS partner, following successful fundraising for Hill Country Conservancy, SafePlace, Austin Lyric Opera, Save Our Springs (SOS) Alliance and Keep Austin Beautiful (KAB). Theatre Action Project is the largest provider of arts education in the Central Texas area. Theatre Action Project uses the creative arts to activate the academic, social and emotional development of young people. It inspires young people to become creative artists, courageous allies, critical thinkers, and confident leaders in their communities, via interactive classroom performances, after school residencies and community based programs. TAP artists and educators work in partnership with schools and communities to create programs that explore critical issues through creative expression. Austin’s TAP
reaches more than 16,000 people a year. TAP’s After School program executes more than 480 hours of programming to youth, Pre-K to 12th grade. “We are so appreciative that EcoClean selected us to be its February PROPS partner,” said Karen LaShelle, Executive Director of Theatre Action Project. “We’ve heard from previous EcoClean PROPS partners that the program is easy and accessible for the non profit, and the consumers who want to feel good that they are donating to a worthy cause just by doing their normal clothing cleaning. The approach EcoClean takes with this program, and with its everyday operations, is what we all love best about Austin local businesses, and why our community gets behind brands like EcoClean.” Austinites are encouraged to bring your cleaning into EcoClean any Wednesday to ensure 5% of your bill will go to a deserving charity. For the rest of February, that charity is Theatre Action Project. Expect equally deserving non profits to be highlighted each month. About EcoClean: For more than 15 years, EcoClean has been Austin’s only 100% eco-friendly garment cleaner. With a completely green approach, EcoClean professionally cleans and launders clothing, bedding and other linens using a non toxic, sustainable and safe process. Beyond an environmentally friendly alternative to dry cleaning, business tenants for EcoClean include high touch customer service, hand pressing of every garment, 24 hour turn around and delivery – door or desk – to over 300 Austin addresses and growing. Established in 1996, EcoClean is a member of both the Independent Austin Business Association (IABA) and Austin EcoNetwork. For more information see www.ecocleanaustin.com and @ecocleanaustin. Or go old school and visit 2915 Guadalupe, Austin, TX 78705 or call: (512) 236-8645 About PROPS: PROPS is urban slang for PROPER RESPECT which was shortened to PROPERS in the 1960s. In the song Respect, Otis Redding’s original line “… give me my proper respect when you get home” was interpreted by Aretha Franklin as “..give me my propers, when you come home.” The further abbreviated version, PROPS, was popularized in the 1980’s by hip-hop artists and fans.
