Philanthropic Roots: From Saving Trees to Picking Up Cigarette Butts

Clearwater, FL, June 14, 2007 – When it comes to caring for the earth, some companies have been labeled as not so environmentally friendly. Wedged between war, gas prices and current government disputes, you’ll notice headlines with toxic dumping in the ocean and littering along highways in many newspapers. PostcardMania, and its CEO Joy Gendusa, is doing its part to change this negative image by setting the example. No task is too large, whether it be saving trees by the thousands or picking up cigarette butts one by one.

The latest in Gendusa’s effort to clean things up was a street clean up as part of the Adopt-A-Street program PostcardMania participates in with the City of Clearwater. As of Thursday morning, Gendusa and 35 of her employees were lining the streets armed with gloves and trash bags. Coming in half an hour before work to help, volunteers picked up over 580 lbs. of trash and debris along with an estimated 1,700 cigarette butts from the surrounding area.

While South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue now has more of a sparkle to it, this project is only one root in the groundwork of Gendusa’s philanthropic tree. Since starting the company in 1998, Gendusa has been participating in various programs to benefit the environment, including the Adopt-A-Street program, which she joined in 2000.

One of Gendusa’s biggest accomplishments over the last few growing seasons has been her switch to recycled paper. Almost two years ago to date PostcardMania decided the yearly $50,000 and growing cost was worth it. As a twist in business ethics, Gendusa didn’t incorporate the cost into her pricing, not wanting it to negatively affect her customers.

The results? Combined with the recycling program over at PostcardMania’s Manufacturing Facility, since 2005, Gendusa has been able to recycle 476,690 pounds of paper equating to 238 tons of paper or in “tree-terms” that equals 4,046 trees saved per year. The combined projects are saving a total of 5,246 trees per year, equaling over 10,000 trees saved thus far.

When asked why she was so adamant about this issue, Gendusa said, “We have to take care of our planet. Goodness knows we do enough to hurt it – if everyone just made a small effort in their daily lives we could keep this place around a lot longer!”
 
About PostcardMania:
PostcardMania is a full service postcard direct mail marketing company which includes graphic design, printing, mailing list acquisition and mailing services with free marketing advice. PostcardMania employs over 140 people, has seen positive expansion every year since its inception and is currently on a 23 million-dollar-revenue run rate for 2007. They have won many awards for their creativity and marketing farsightedness, such as the MarCom International Awards, the Stevie Awards, the Inc 500 List, the Creativity Annual Awards and the Webmaster awards – all of which the underlying theme contributing to their accomplishments is helping companies all over the nation expand. They print 4 million and mail 2 million postcards representing over 350 business, finance and industrial clients each week. Visit www.postcardmania.com