Red Bank merchants are banding together to contribute to efforts to aid survivors of recent hurricanes that devastated Texas, Florida and Caribbean.
Dubbed ‘Red Bank Gives Back’ and organized by the downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter, the fundraiser brings together restaurants, shops and theaters that have pledged to contribute portions of their receipts from Thursday, October 5 through Saturday, October 7, said executive director Jim Scavone.
“Many of our stakeholders were asking how, as a community, we could help everyone who was affected by all of the devastating hurricanes recently, so RC’s marketing committee discussed some type of fundraiser at our last meeting and we pulled together Red Bank Gives Back,” he said.
Businesses will participate in different ways, with some are giving a percentage of sales over the three days and others giving a dollar amount for a particular item sold (for example Toast is giving $1 for every cup of coffee sold, Scavone said. Many businesses will also have donation jars set up for patrons to make additional donations.
RiverCenter will collect all the funds and make a single donation to Direct Relief, a nonprofit emergency aid organization, Scavone said.
About 50 businesses, as well as the two big performance venues in town (the Count Basie Theatre and Two River Theater) had signed up to participate as of Friday morning. The roster can be found here.