Bills fans are usually the ones supporting the players, but when it came to the Campbell's Chunky Soup 'Click for Cans' campaign, the players supported the impressive efforts of Bills fans and the Food Bank of Western New York was the beneficiary.
By clicking on the Buffalo helmet at www.chunky.com every week of the regular season and postseason Bills fans took the AFC title and were responsible for Campbell's donation of 12,000 cans of soup to the Food Bank.
"I would like to congratulate the fans of the Buffalo Bills on a fantastic 'Click for Cans' season," said Doug Brand, Campbell's Chunky soup Brand Manager.
"In this very cold winter that we are experiencing, the donation could not have come at a better time," said Food Bank Marketing and PR Director Mike Billoni. "It will help us provide 24,000 meals to our clients."
Representing the fans from the Bills roster were James Hardy, Derek Schouman and John Wendling, who also helped load some of the soup loads into delivery trucks, which will distribute the soup to the almost 400 agencies and soup kitchens in Western New York for those in need.
"The fans that for 17 weeks clicked on our helmet online and enabled the Food Bank to help as many people as possible were great," said Hardy. "This is going to help a lot of people in the economic drought that we're in right now."
The fans of the Green Bay Packers for the seventh straight year ultimately won the 'Click for Cans' competition, with Buffalo finishing in second, but Wendling did not feel it diminished the efforts of the Bills faithful and laid down the gauntlet for 2009.
"I can't say enough thanks to the Bills fans," said Wendling. "This is an awesome way for the city of Buffalo to provide for the 400 agencies that are out there like the soup kitchens. We encourage you to vote next year so we can beat Wisconsin and the Green Bay Packers in this competition."
