The first Ride Out the Wave event on April 3 was a huge success. Our very generous community made over 5,000 gift card purchases and delivered over $40,000 to businesses impacted by the COVID-19 shelter-in-place. Taylor Rae gave a phenomenal concert via Facebook Live that made our Friday evening. And hundreds of people received a $25 matching gift to their favorite business, including musicians like Taylor. So…

Let’s Do it Again!

On Friday, April 24, join us online for a Facebook Live concert by Keith Greeninger. Generous sponsors including Looker Data Science, Community Foundation, Amazon, and Monterey Bay Economic Partnership have donated funds that we’ll use to double your purchasing power during this event.

Help your neighborhood businesses by buying a $50 gift card during the show and receive a matched $50 gift certificate!

Matching starts at 7:00 p.m. PT Friday, April 24, and runs until the matching funds are depleted (they will go quick!). Limited to 1 per person. Fight the devastating economic impacts of COVID-19 by buying local business gift cards and enjoy a concert for your community.

LINK TO FACEBOOK LIVE EVENT

Local Tech Companies Give Back

The sudden Coronavirus economic crisis stunned neighborhood businesses across Santa Cruz County and cash flow became a problem overnight. Santa Cruz Works immediately gathered local tech industry volunteers to connect local businesses with willing gift card buyers. Visit www.rideoutthewave.org to sign up your organization or to support your favorite local merchant, and read this exciting story of local tech for good.

Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County

“Already, during this pandemic, we are seeing examples of the actions that need to be sustained throughout the duration of our economic recovery. Collaborations between local government, nonprofits, and businesses are essential. Driscoll’s donated a forklift to Second Harvest to help them with the drastic increase in demand. Cruzio and Cruz One teamed up with the County Office of Education to ensure more low-income students had the necessary tech for distance learning. The City of Watsonville has a Facebook awareness campaign to let folks know which businesses are open.

“Whenever possible, people need to keep their dollars local such as buying books at Bookshop Santa Cruz, getting take out from locally owned restaurants, or purchasing gift cards from favorite local businesses. That’s why we are proud to support Ride Out The Wave.”

Susan True, CEO of the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County

Read more about the Susan and the Community Foundation’s approach to giving and generosity in this article, originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Looker Data Sciences

“The most important thing we can do to support our local economy and community is get involved and create meaningful connections. Looker employees have been focusing their efforts on supporting local non-profits to address their needs as they quickly pivot to address the needs of our community. We started by reaching out to our long time partners to best understand their needs and how we could help. Our focus was to collaborate and problem solve with them and create innovative solutions to these new problems alongside them. Their requests varied from Digital Nest needing our help to pivot their entire program to distance learning, Second Harvest needing immediate donations and distribution help to support many more families than expected, and new partners like Project PPE 4 Central Coast needing anyone proficient at using a sewing machine to sew washable masks. We also deepened our partnership with the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz to encourage employees to sign up to be a part of their COVID Response Team which leverages their power and reach across multiple opportunities. Connecting these opportunities to Lookers has helped everyone feel connected to our community.   

“Looker so greatly values being in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz and has always encouraged employees to support our local economy. Despite being sheltered at our homes, Lookers have come together to generate lists of businesses and restaurants that have transitioned their stores online or to provide delivery services to ensure we continue to take action and provide support to our local economy and small business. Where we would normally have a team outing to a local restaurant we now have virtual team lunches where people DoorDash their meal so that we as employees stay connected to one another and the businesses we love most!

”Looker deeply values our established connections with our nonprofit community and is sharing opportunities with employees on how to stay actively engaged via distance volunteering. Looker is making financial contributions to organizations making the greatest impact and meeting the greatest need such as supporting Ride Out the Wave or Second Harvest that are ensuring businesses continue to generate needed income and that families and children have their most basic needs met. These nonprofits and local business are what make our community so special so continuing to deepen these relationships even remotely/digitally helps employees feel connected and our community feel alive and well even during a time of isolation.”

Danielle Wilcox, Global Workplace Specialist of Looker Data Sciences

Monterey Bay Economic Partnership

"Through a gracious donation from one of our members, MBEP is proud to support this local program to assist small businesses during the crisis. Whatever we can do to keep small businesses afloat and workers employed, the quicker the recovery and rebound will be." 

Kate Roberts, President & CEO of MBEP and Santa Cruz Works board member

Amazon

"The Ride Out the Wave project was a perfect opportunity for Amazonian volunteers to lend design, development and marketing talents. We’re delighted with the first round results and pleased to contribute matching funds to help the impact reach even farther. Thanks to Santa Cruz Works and our tech industry peers for pulling together so quickly to make a local difference.”

Drew Meyer, Amazon, and Santa Cruz Works board member

Praise for Keith Greeninger

Keith Greeninger is a highly acclaimed musician known personally by our community. He will be playing songs from his new album HUMAN CITIZEN as well as many of your favorites. In his own words, Keith is…

 I’m a glorious peasant, I’m a passionate fool 
I’m a hard-workin’ brown dirt poet, ain’t never finished school 
I’ve been livin’ on the outskirts, by a different set of rules 
I’ve been learning from my elders, I’ve been gatherin’ up my tools 
- Glorious Peasant -

“I field calls on countless artists, and no one has captured my listeners more than Keith”
–Brian Terhorst,  KVMR, Nevada City
  

"Greeninger's music has a dramatic quality to it. A storyteller in song, he paints masterful portraits of humanity in both its splendor and strife."          
–Steven Sawada, Eugene Weekly 
  

"KEITH GREENINGER was on fire, every chord he touched turned epic, every conviction he put forward resonated with an incredible power."  
–Steve Palopoli, Metro Santa Cruz