GIFT! GIFT!: LOCAL LITTLE CAESARS OWNER MAKES IMPACT ON ORGAN AND TISSUE DONATION AFTER RECEIVING KIDNEY

For Immediate Release: January 31, 2005

Greenville, SC – Bob Johns, owner of 13 Greenville and Pickens County Little Caesars franchises, intends to put his money where his mouth is when it comes to expressing his thanks for the gift of life he received when he got his kidney transplant in April 2004. Beginning February 15, patrons of Johns’ Little Caesars locations will be able to purchase the Gift! Gift! Crazy Bread and Crazy Sauce for $1.00, and for each purchase made, Johns will make a $.50 donation to the South Carolina Gift of Life Trust Fund.

Johns, a juvenile diabetes sufferer since the age of 14, faced many health problems throughout his life, but battled through them to mount a highly successful career with his chain of Little Caesars that began with a location on Greenville’s Pleasantburg Drive established in 1983. As he reached his early 50s, however, Johns’ kidneys began to fail, and he realized that both his family and his enterprise—built to employ several hundred workers—were at stake.

“I knew that I might not live to see my children grow up, but also that if I died, all my employees might be at risk if anything happened to Little Caesars,” Johns says today. “With everything I had been through, it was a frightening prospect, and the one thing over which I had no control. I could only wait.”

Johns was placed on the waiting list for a donor kidney, and on the third call, three years later, he was given the gift of life. Now, only months later, he has made a full recovery, and is honoring this gift with a vow to help others receive the same second chance that he has been granted.

“I am so thankful to have received this organ, and anything I can do to help advance the cause of organ and tissue donation, I am pleased and proud to do,” Johns says. “Hopefully, the customers who have been such great supporters of Little Caesars over the years will be great supporters of this promotion, too, and enable us to raise a lot of money for this important cause.”

“Bob is a perfect example of why we need more corporate sponsors to back their commitment to us with dollars. Had he not received his life-saving kidney, one has to wonder what would become of his franchise,” says Theresa Halfacre, Marketing and Resource Development Coordinator for the South Carolina Gift of Life Trust Fund (GLTF). “Bob says he’s the lucky one, but so is GLTF. From Bob’s strength and determination to help promote organ and tissue donation, we will continue to take a leading role as the voice to speak on behalf of the hundreds of South Carolinians awaiting a life-saving organ.”

The Little Caesars Gift! Gift! promotion is being managed under the “Buy to Give” brand by Just Right, LLC, a Greenville-based cause-related marketing firm working on behalf of South Carolina Gift of Life Trust Fund. For more information on South Carolina Gift of Life Trust Fund, visit www.giftoflife-sc.org, or call.877.277.4866.

Founded in 2003, Just Right, LLC unites non-profits, consumer products and services,and the media in promotions that deliver deeply discounted or specially offered goods and services to consumers. With each purchase during the promotion, a donation is made back to the participating non-profit all under the theme of a “good deal for a good cause”. Vicki Sharif, President and CEO of Just Right, is a licensed professional fundraiser. For more information, contact Cristina Schleifer, Executive Vice President, Just Right, at (864) 272-0285, or by e-mail at cschleifer@justrightllc.com. Visit Just Right on the web at http://www.justrightllc.com.

Participating Little Caesars locations:

5546 Calhoun Memorial Hwy. (123 By-Pass)
Easley, SC

Highway 291
1140 N. Pleasantburg Drive
Greenville, SC

6514 White Horse Road
Greenville, SC

1810 Woodruff Road (Woodruff Village Shopping Center-Corner of Woodruff & Butler)
Greenville, SC

3525 Earle Morris Hwy. (Highway 153, Near 81)
Greenville, SC

242-A West Wade Hampton Blvd.
Greer, SC

5-A East Owens Lane (Butler & Owens Lane)
Mauldin, SC

2710- B Gentry Memorial Highway (Cedar Square)
Pickens, SC


7486 Augusta Road (Highway 25)
Moonville Station, Ste. A
Piedmont, SC

641 S. Main Street (Hillcrest Market Place)
Simpsonville, SC

5004 Old Spartanburg Road (Eastgate Village)
Taylors, SC

3217 Wade Hampton Blvd. (Taylors Pointe)
Taylors, SC

148 Walnut Lane (Gateway Village Shopping Center)
Travelers Rest, SC