SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – February 1, 2010) – In the aftermath of Haiti’s worst earthquake in more than 200 years, a group of companies including Gowalla, Alice Radio, Peet’s Coffee & Tea and The Counter have formed a Bay Area venture to address the country’s mounting devastation by encouraging their customers to contribute. The February 8 events will culminate with an exclusive Barenaked Ladies concert that evening.

In this campaign called “Hearts for Haiti,” Gowalla, a new location-based social networking service, is encouraging its users to contribute to relief efforts by checking in at two Bay Area Peet’s Coffee & Tea locations on Monday, February 8, or at a special Barenaked Ladies concert that evening. As part of the campaign, $50 per person who checks in with Gowalla will be donated to the American Red Cross, with a goal of reaching $20,000 total.

Below are details on the February 8 festivities:

— 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Peet’s Coffee & Tea in Emeryville at 5959
Shellmound Street, Suite 85
— 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Peet’s Coffee & Tea in Mill Valley at 88
Throckmorton Avenue
— 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Barenaked Ladies concert at Infusion Lounge

“As we continue to learn about the enormity of the devastation in Haiti, we were compelled to do whatever we could to contribute to the recovery efforts,” said Josh Williams, CEO and co-founder of Gowalla. “Our Gowalla community is incredibly interconnected and we feel that putting this offering in place will be a great way to mobilize the public and make a positive impact.”

Alice Radio, the Bay Area’s most popular radio station, has signed on to get the word out about the effort. Alice’s own morning show hosts Sarah and Vinnie will join Gowalla Community Manager Jonathan Carroll and Gowalla CEO Josh Williams during the event to raise awareness and thank the public for their donations.

Peter Katz, local owner and operator of The Counter, a Northern California burger place, said, “It does not matter what business you are in, when people are in need, it is all of our responsibility to heed the call. The Counter could not be happier to have partnered with such great companies and the Northern California community in bringing much needed aid to the people Haiti.”

With the assistance of the Gowalla community, support will be generated by users who arrive at the locations and “check in” through their smartphone applications. Once a user checks in at Peet’s Coffee & Tea or the Barenaked Ladies concert, Gowalla will donate $50 in that person’s name to the American Red Cross Haiti relief efforts. Additionally, Peet’s Coffee & Tea will donate ten percent of sales at the Emeryville and Mill Valley locations on February 8 to the relief effort.

About Alice Radio

Alice@97.3 is a local radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are known for our music, our outrageous Morning Show and our reckless abandonment for art, film, and all things that inspire. Alice Music is artists like Coldplay, U2, Matchbox Twenty, Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthews Band, Sting, Barenaked Ladies, and Jack Johnson. Alice Music includes emerging artists because we believe in supporting original music. We love to share passion with everyone. Hear us anywhere at radioalice.com.

About Gowalla

Gowalla inspires people to share their favorite places and events with friends while discovering the world around them. The Gowalla service is currently available on iPhone and Android. Formerly Alamofire, Inc., Gowalla is also the creator of the addictive Facebook game PackRat. The company is privately held and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information on the company, visit www.gowalla.com.

About Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc.

Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc., (PEET), is the premier specialty coffee and tea company in the United States. Founded in 1966 in Berkeley, California by Alfred Peet, an early tea authority who became widely recognized as the grandfather of specialty coffee in the U.S., Peet’s offers superior quality coffees and teas in multiple forms, by sourcing the best quality coffee beans and tea leaves in the world, adhering to strict high quality and taste standards, and controlling product quality though its unique direct store delivery selling and merchandising system. Peet’s is committed to strategically growing its business through many channels while maintaining the extraordinary quality of its coffees and teas. For more information about Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc. visit www.peets.com.

About The Counter

Founded in 2003 by Jeff Weinstein, Culver City, Calif.-based The Counter is the 21st-century equivalent to the classic burger joint, offering a fresh, unconventional approach to the American tradition of creating the ultimate premium burger. The Counter has quickly gained national acclaim. In July 2005, GQ magazine columnist Alan Richman named the “Build Your Own Burger” to his list of the best burgers in America and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” featured The Counter’s inclusion on Richman’s list in a 2006 show highlighting the “20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die.” There are currently 21 locations in the United States and 2 international locations. For more information, visit www.thecounterburger.com.

About Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian alternative rock band. The band is currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson and Tyler Stewart. Barenaked Ladies formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, at the time a suburb of Toronto.

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Before the kick-off, participants observed one minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12. The Match also focused attention on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted in 2000, which seek to halve world poverty by 2015.

Every time we get together for this match we can help and make a difference, said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador Zinedine Zidane. We can’t stress enough the importance of mobilizing people for the recovery of the disaster that just occurred in Haiti and for the ongoing projects we have with UNDP.

I think Haiti needs everybodys support now,” said Kaka, who was invited by his good friend UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Ronaldo, to represent him in the match. Around the world there are a lot of problems but the most urgent one now is Haiti, and because of that I am very happy to be part of this game tonight and to represent Ronaldo here.

For the past seven years, UNDPs Match Against Poverty has raised funds for global efforts to reduce poverty while at the same time shining a much needed spotlight on those efforts. The Match Against Poverty is supported by the Fdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

The players, brought together through the efforts of Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane, included two rising Haitian players from the Portuguese Football Clubs, Jean Sony and Joseph Peterson, representing their recently devastated nation. The Brazilian midfielder Kak (Real Madrid) represented Ronaldo who, unfortunately, was unable to attend the Match as he started, on 24 January, the Brazilian football season with his Club Corinthians. Other football stars participating in the match included Pavel Nedved (Czech Republic), Michael Laudrup (Denmark), Thierry Henry Fabien Barthez and Christophe Dugarry (France), Edgar Davids and Phillip Cocu (Netherlands), Luis Figo, Fernando Couto, and Pauleta, Rui Costa, Nuno Gomez (Portugal), Gheorghe Hagi and Gheorghe Popescu (Romania), Lucas Radebe (South Africa) and Fernando Hierro (Spain).

The match was refereed by Italian legendary Pierluigi Collina.

Portuguese Prime Minister Jos Scrates; Bruce Jenks, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Partnerships Bureau; Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, and Luis Filipe Vieira, President of the Benfica Foundation, where among the high-ranking officials who attended the Match.

For further information visit http://www.undp.org/

UNDP is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.

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