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Manhattan Lends a Hand to BP Oil Spill Clean-Up With Online Bake Sales and Hair Clippings

By DNAinfo Staff on June 17, 2010 8:50pm

By Yepoka Yeebo

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — With online bake sales and boxes of hair, Manhattanites are trying to do their part in the Gulf Coast clean-up effort following the British Petroleum oil disaster.

Upper East Side website Baking for Good is giving 15 percent of the proceeds from its online brownie bake sale to the New York-based Gulf Coast Fund, which helps gulf coast community groups affected by the thousands of barrels of oil gushing into the gulf daily.

"After the disaster, we wanted to help give back, and our customers wanted to help give back," Baking for Good founder Emily Daubner, 25, told DNAinfo.com.

"We liked the Gulf Coast Fund because what they do fits our motto, 'a little sugar goes a long way,'" Daubner said. "Even when they only give $7,000, they know it will help those communities."

The Fund used an emergency pool of cash, created after Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav hit Louisiana, to help fund projects like one that provides protective gear for residents who have to clean oil out of their own back yards.

"We have had some really excellent support from New York," said Annie Ducanis from the Gulf Coast Fund, adding that another group, the classical musicians' collective Fear no Frontier, are planning a benefit concert at the Manhattan Center in Midtown on July 24th.

Even Manhattan hair salons are getting into the act.

Julien Farel in Midtown East and Swing Salon in the East Village are donating hair clippings to the charity Matter of Trust, which stuffs the discarded hair into stockings to be used to soak up the oil.

Amanda Gaynor, a spokeswoman for the Julien Farel salon, said they had already collected 12 boxes of hair.

"The salon has customers from that region whose families have been affected and feels this just as much as they do," she said.

"This is their way of lending a helping hand."

In addition to the donations, Manhattanites are expressing their anger, too. Protests have been held across the city and a BP gas station is SoHo was splattered with oil-colored paint.

Matter of Trust is stuffing the discarded hair into stockings to soak up oil.
Matter of Trust is stuffing the discarded hair into stockings to soak up oil.
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DNAinfo/Yepoka Yeebo
An oiled brown pelican tries to take flight from Barataria Bay June 6, 2010 near Grand Isle, Louisiana. BP's latest attempt to stem the flow of oil from the well head is capturing a portion of the oil flowing out, but much of it continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
An oiled brown pelican tries to take flight from Barataria Bay June 6, 2010 near Grand Isle, Louisiana. BP's latest attempt to stem the flow of oil from the well head is capturing a portion of the oil flowing out, but much of it continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
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Win McNamee/Getty Images