News

Tropical Smoothie Café donates $2M to Camp Sunshine

August 7, 2013

Tropical Smoothie Café presented a donation check of $515,000 this week to Camp Sunshine, a national retreat in Casco, Maine, for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. The donation was a result of proceeds from the restaurant brand's National Flip Flop Day campaign, and it exceeded its goal of raising $500,000 — the most in this partnership's six-year history, according to a company press release.

Tropical Smoothie Café has now raised and donated more than $2 million to Camp Sunshine through its National Flip Flop Day fundraising. Camp Sunshine provides a welcome respite for children and their families coping with such life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, kidney disease and lupus.

On Monday, more than 250 family members, volunteers and staff looked on as Mike Rotondo, Tropical Smoothie Café's CEO and president, presented the $515,000 check to Camp Sunshine Co-Founder Anna Gould and Executive Director Matthew Hoidal.

"Camp Sunshine creates memorable experiences for the families touched by this incredible program, and Tropical Smoothie Café stands behind those efforts 100 percent," Rotondo said. "We are proud to be involved with such a wonderful organization and look forward to continuing to support Camp Sunshine."

Tropical Smoothie Café raised the funds during its annual National Flip Flop Day, which took place in June at each of the more than 340 locations across the country. Stores gave away free smoothies to flip flop-wearing customers and sold key chains to raise the money, while also encouraging guests to make donations to Camp Sunshine.

"We feel forever grateful to Tropical Smoothie Café for its leadership, rallying its team and inspiring its customers so that children with life-threatening illnesses and their families from around the country can find respite at Camp Sunshine," said Matthew M. Hoidal, Esq., executive director of Camp Sunshine. "Tropical Smoothie Café's ongoing support will have a lasting positive impact on Camp Sunshine's future. We can't thank them enough."

The money raised this year will be used primarily to provide sponsorships for more than 200 families to attend Camp Sunshine throughout the year, which includes supporting families' travel costs, according to Rotondo.

Wanna hear more from Rotondo? He's speaking about the success of his business model and during the CEO Roundtable Oct. 13-15 at the annual Fast Casual Executive Summit. Register here.