Yesterday afternoon Metropolitan Market Vice President of Marketing Brad Halverson presented the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, an organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Puget Sound, with a $5,217 check. Alliance Executive Director Bob Beckman received the check outside the Upper Queen Anne Metropolitan Market, the sum of five-cent donations made in 2008 by market customers who used their .05 bag re-use rebate to benefit the organization.

Pictured from left to right, Bob Beckman, Executive Director of Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, and Brad Halverson, Vice President of Marketing at Metropolitan Market. (Thanks to Sara at Wilson Public Relations and I CANDI Studios for the photo!)

“The partnership between Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and Metropolitan Market is a great example of community and environmental stewardship,” Beckman said in a public statement. We applaud Metropolitan Market’s efforst to encourage their customers to re-use their bags and give back to Puget Sound.”

Metropolitan Market and the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance have been bag rebate partner organizations since 2007, when the store launched its bag re-use program. Customers who made the .05 contributions had the option of keeping the five-cent rebate for themselves, but instead made over 104,000 nickel donations that added up to the huge sum.