Eagle Creek and its retail partners re-launched Eagle Creek's consumer-facing North American wheeled luggage trade-in program, which first launched in 2005, that directly benefits those who are in homeless and/or domestic violence situations.

More than 200 Eagle Creek retailers in North America are participating in the 2006 Gimme Shelter initiative. For a complete list of retailers visit www.eaglecreek.com.

Incentive for consumer participation, in addition to supporting the important work of local shelters, comes in the form of an immediate $25 rebate toward any wheeled Eagle Creek item. To participate, consumers are encouraged to return any clean, empty and usable wheeled luggage to participating retailers throughout the U.S. and Canada between October 2 and November 15th. During this period, retailers collect used luggage and donate the wheeled pieces to local women’s and/or homeless shelters in their local communities at the completion of the program.

“Eagle Creek, its retail partners and travelers joined together in 2005 to provide more than 450 useful rolling luggage bags to those in greatest need in communities throughout the U.S and Canada,” said Eagle Creek Director of Marketing Adam Ziegelman. “We hope that re-introducing this program just prior to the holidays will once again help us to capture the hearts and minds of those who wish to contribute to local shelters in their communities.”

Marketing support for participating retailers includes: an Online Toolkit retailers may use to make the promotion visible on retailers’ Web sites; publicity support materials and backing to support local retailer and shelter publicity efforts; package inserts to alert customers of the program; point of purchase kits; and corporate marketing and national public relations support.

For perspective: Nearly 800,000 people are homeless on any given night in the United States, while more than 50 percent of all homeless women and children are fleeing domestic violence situations. There are 1,500 shelters for battered women in the United States. There are 3,800 animal shelters.