Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! is hosting its annual Twitter Blanket Drive (#TBD2014) to collect blankets and large ziplock bags for those in need during winter, particularly in areas affected by waterlogged conditions. Since its inception in 2010, the initiative has garnered significant support, with over 10,000 donations helping South Africans stay warm and dry. The collection runs until May 29, culminating in an event at both hotels with entertainment and donations to selected charities.

1. PROTEA HOTEL FIRE & ICE! TAKES THE ICE OUT OF WINTER WITH TWITTER BLANKET DRIVE
April 2014: There’s no feeling quite like slipping between crisp sheets in a warm hotel room on
a freezing winter’s night. And while nobody does beds better than Protea Hotel Fire & Ice!
they also understand that there are legions out there who won’t have that luxury this season
and are desperately in need of blankets.
The Twitter Blanket Drive #TBD2014 returns to Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! Cape Town and Melrose
Arch this year with a twist – they’re adding another mindful giving component and asking
people to deliver blankets along with large ziplock bags that can be used by recipients to
keep important documents such as ID books or school books dry when many informal
settlements will be under water the coming months.
The social media cause started in 2010, when Melanie Minaar (@MelanieMinaar) organised a
Twitter meet-up and asked everyone to bring blankets for those in need. Only expecting to
get a small number of responses, Melanie was blown away when her single tweet went viral,
and within two weeks members of the South African Twitter community had donated more
than 700 blankets to be distributed to charities.
Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! joined #TBD in 2011, and since then the hotel’s cool GUESTS, visitors
and celebrities have contributed to keeping more than 10 000 South Africans warm and dry.
Protea Hotels Group Marketing Manager Nicholas Barenblatt says our GUESTS are social by
nature of their connectedness and conscious which is the main reason for this campaign
being such a success year on year.
In excess of five million South Africans now use Twitter, and the number of South African
Facebook users is higher than nine million. Protea Hotels Fire & Ice! GMs Gabrielle Abrahams
and Johan Cronje want to make #TBD2014 the most successful Blanket Drive ever, so they’re
using Twitter (obviously) and Facebook to encourage people to put their blankets where
their mouths are and raid every nook and cranny of their houses for warm blankets to
donate.
People have until (and including) 29 May to bring their blankets to the hotel drop-off point,
either in Cape Town or Melrose Arch.
GUESTS staying in the hotels, who might not necessarily have travelled with their beloved
blankies or don’t want to give them away if they did, can also join the cause by purchasing
a blanket at either of the hotels, for just R75.
The collection will culminate in a special handover of blankets to the chosen charities at the
official Twitter Blanket Drive Events, which will take place at both hotels simultaneously on

2. Thursday 29 May, from 6pm. The events are open to everyone who brings a blanket on the
night, and there will be entertainment, surprise celebrity appearances, drinks and delicious
goodies to eat.
In Cape Town in particular, where winters are very wet, donations of polar fleece blankets
are sorely needed because they dry more quickly, as are large ziplock bags for residents of
informal settlements to keep any valuable documents from getting waterlogged. They are,
of course, also extremely good for keeping blankets dry too!
Every hotel in the Protea Hotels group supports at least one charity or NGO per year, but
most do far more than that. Protea Hotels Group Marketing Manager Nicholas Barenblatt
says the company as a whole is committed to giving back to the communities in which it
operates.
“The people at Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! may be the cool kids of group, but they have warm
hearts. We’re immensely proud of what they’ve done with the Twitter Blanket Drive and we
know we can break records this year.”
Among the recipient charities this year are Soul Food, which collects and distributes food
supplies to approximately 30 shelters in the Witwatersrand region, and Operation Shoebox,
which supports more than 5 000 children in Cape Town.