On Saturday, April 22, music lovers everywhere will celebrate the 10th annual Record Store Day. This year, Record Store Day coincides with Earth Day, which created an opportunity in the mind of Caecilia Holt, co-owner of Young Ones, an independent record store located in Kutztown.
Holt, who shops with re-useable bags herself, has been thinking about encouraging customers to forego bags by tying their choice into a charity donation. Considering the toll that disposable bags take on the planet, both for manufacturing and disposal, Earth Day seemed like the perfect day to raise awareness, and the fact that it happens to be the same day as Record Store Day, the busiest day all year for Young Ones, clinched the decision.
For the past several years, Record Store Day organizers have created limited edition cloth tote bags which participating stores could offer customers. This year’s design commemorates “10 years of celebrating the indie record store.” Young Ones purchased 300 of the specially designed bags with their own logo printed on the reverse in preparation for the big day. According to Young Ones campaign materials, the store will donate to a charity when customers choose not to use a disposable bag.
“Because we love our planet, we like to encourage customers to use a new bag only when they need it. Because we love our awesome community, we thought of another way we can give back. Every time YOU reuse or decline a bag, WE donate to a charity YOU choose. (Reuse or decline ANY bag, we donate 3 cents. Reuse a Young Ones bag, we donate 5 cents.) Each quarter, we total everything up, and cut a check to the charities. Feel free to suggest that we support your favorite charity.”
The cloth tote bags will be available for sale starting on Record Store Day, when the shop opens early at 8 a.m. All proceeds from the sale of the bags go to charity. The charities currently selected are Kutztown Area School District Odyssey of the Mind, a creative problem solving competition, and One to One Cat Rescue, a local no-kill shelter. Young Ones plans to change the beneficiaries of the donations quarterly.
Other ways Young Ones will mark Record Store Day 2017 include stocking most of the hundreds of limited and exclusive titles released on that day, free live performances by local musicians in the afternoon, samples from Biniek Biotech Brews, and lots of freebies and enter-to-win contests. More information and links to the list of releases is available at youngonesrecords.com.
