Charleston Basket Brigade To Assemble And Deliver Meals To 1628 Families This Thanksgiving

Hundreds of local volunteers gather to feed families in need in Charleston. End Quote

Charleston-North Charleston, SC (1888PressRelease) November 23, 2010 - Michelle Scarafile and Pam Hartley, Co-Founders of the Charleston Basket Brigade (CBB), announced today that the group is set to assemble and deliver meals to 1628 families with the assistance of more than 1000 local volunteers on Tuesday, November 23rd. The group announced today that they raised $48,840.00 in conjunction with Carolina One Real Estate, Piggly Wiggly, Communities In Schools and Momentum Marketing. Recipient families will receive a meal that includes a 10-12 lb. turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, cranberry sauce, a pumpkin pie, fresh rolls and butter.

Hartley, Founder of Momentum Marketing on Daniel Island and Scarafile, a Realtor with Carolina One Real Estate, created the Charleston Basket Brigade in 2008 as an effort to reach out and serve families throughout the Charleston area. What began as two friends committed to make a difference has grown into a global fundraiser that engaged people across four continents - as far as Australia.

"We're so unbelievably grateful to the more than 6,000 people that got involved this year," said Hartley. "Michelle and I just created a platform for the community to get involved. The real kudos go to every single person that donated or volunteered to pull this off," Hartley added.

Hartley, Scarafile, and more than 800 Carolina One Real Estate employees and agents spent weeks raising funds and spreading the word. Friends, family members, local companies and caring individuals across the globe were able to participate as a result of the Piggly Wiggly Facebook fundraiser November 1st -7th, which doubled expectations generating 3,989 new "likes" for Piggly Wiggly's Facebook page in just one week. With an initial pledge of $1 for each new "like" up to 1500 total, Piggly Wiggly increased its donation to $3,989 as a result of the overwhelming response from the Facebook community.

"Piggly Wiggly gave the Facebook community an opportunity to take part in our fundraiser and demonstrate the power of social media at work for a great cause," said Scarafile. "We had people across the United States post comments, even Facebook enthusiasts throughout England, South America, Australia and Romania "liked" Piggly Wiggly," Scarafile added. "It's social proof that when a company gives back to the community, people truly 'like' that company for it," said Hartley.

The Charleston Basket Brigade would not be possible without the commitment of Carolina One Real Estate, Communities In Schools, Piggly Wiggly, Momentum Marketing and many caring friends, families and community members.

Four staging areas around Charleston have been set up to assemble and deliver the meals on Tuesday, November 23rd from 7am-5pm. The largest staging area will be located at the Sea Island Piggly Wiggly at 1220 Ben Sawyer Blvd. in Mt Pleasant, where volunteers will assemble more than 800 meal baskets. Delivery volunteers are still needed.

Carolina One staffers, agents and community volunteers raised money, assemble and deliver the meals on Tuesday from four pre-set staging areas in Charleston. Communities In Schools, a non-profit drop out prevention organization with 20 counselors in 16 schools throughout Charleston and Berkeley County, locate the families that receive meals based on need and map out directions for delivery. Piggly Wiggly provides discounts on food, boxes, and coordinates delivery of the food to the staging areas throughout Charleston. Momentum Marketing (Hartley's company) provides public relations, social media support and event coordination assistance.

"Our heartfelt thanks go out to Carolina One Real Estate, Derek Pace and Christopher Ibsen of Piggly Wiggly, Caren Putzu and her staff at Communities In Schools and everyone that is taking part in this event," said Hartley. "There are so many people to thank- the list is a mile long." Scarafile said, "To think about almost 10,000 people in this community enjoying a meal on Thanksgiving Day is just overwhelming. Our only hope is that they pay it forward in the future."

For more information on the volunteer effort and to get involved, visit www.charlestonbasketbrigade.com.

Media Contact:
Pam Hartley
Momentum Marketing
pam ( @ ) momentumresults dot com
843.377.8450

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