Project Pantyhose - Hooters Girls help clean-up Gulf of Mexico oil spill
Last updated 6/14/2010 11:52:01 AM
Project Pantyhose - Hooters Girls help clean-up Gulf of Mexico oil spill
As the pressure increases to find a strategy over the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, an alternative effort - ‘Project Pantyhose' - to help absorb the spill is under away.
Waitresses from restaurant chain Hooters will be voluntarily donating their torn pantyhose – to make booms stuffed with hair, fur and fleece to absorb the spill.
Across its 380 sites in the US, Hooters expects to collect of 100,000 pairs of pantyhose, which could ultimately absorb one million gallons of oil in the Gulf, if the booms are re-used eight times, the average life of a boom.
The collected pantyhose will be shipped to environmental agencies and non-profit organisations Indigo Oceanic and Matter of Trust to make the booms. The booms will be grouped together and sent out into the Gulf to absorb and block the oil from reaching the coast, protecting harbours and marshlands.
There are roughly 15,000 Hooters Girls in the US and their uniform includes pantyhose. The life expectancy of a pair of pantyhose worn by Hooters Girls at work is about 2-3 shifts. Hooters said it supports the use of natural fibres as a non-toxic, renewable resource to aid in the oil spill clean up efforts.
All of Hooters are collecting the pantyhose for a 4-week period to create 15 miles of booms.
The restaurant company also serves a number of community projects under its Hooters Community Endowment Fund (HOO.C.E.F.), which raises money for local and national charities such as the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research, Make-A-Wish Foundation, the U.S.O., Special Olympics, American Diabetes Association, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Since 1992, HOO.C.E.F. has raised more than $8 million for these and other worthwhile organizations.
A portion of this money comes from a VIP grand opening party each location holds to benefit a local charity, generating thousands annually.