Hooters Girls Visit Troops in Iraq & Kuwait

ATLANTA, April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Four Hooters Girls will be visiting thousands of troops stationed in Iraq & Kuwait next week. Hooters partnered with Pro Sports MVP to coordinate the tour alongside country music band BrokeDown Cadillac and comedian/emcee Andy Lauer who will be performing during a 10-day morale, welfare and recreation tour.

Nationally acclaimed Hooters Girls Raechel Holtgrave from Maryland Heights, MO; Ashleigh Dunn from Newnan, GA; Wendy Foster from Rock Hill, SC and Lara Hardy from San Diego, CA will be participating in the upcoming goodwill tour. The Hooters Girls will reach thousands of military personnel while participating in autograph signings, meet & greets, hospital visits, and evening performances with BrokeDown Cadillac and Andy Lauer.

This is the second time in less than six months Hooters Girls have made a trip to Baghdad to visit the troops. Hooters is very active all year in support of the military through various promotions.  For the past 6 years Hooters restaurants has participated in Operation: Calendar Drop and has collectively sent over 100,000 calendars to military personnel overseas along with a note of appreciation during the holidays. Hooters also has donated over $100,000 to Operation Homefront, an organization that provides emergency assistance and morale to our troops and their families, through the Tom Valentine Fund. Thomas J. Valentine, a Navy SEAL troop chief, was killed during a training exercise Feb. 13, 2008.

Hooters of America, Inc. is the franchisor and operator of over 455 Hooters restaurants in 44 states and 28 foreign countries. The first Hooters opened in 1983 in Clearwater, Florida. Hooters is well-known for its brand of food and fun, featuring a casual beach-theme atmosphere, a menu that features seafood, sandwiches and Hooters nearly world famous chicken wings, and service provided by the All-American cheerleaders, the Hooters Girls. For more information about Hooters visit www.hooters.com.

BrokeDown Cadillac - BrokeDown Cadillac is a 5-piece modern country band fronted by Atlanta native, Corri English, and her counterpart, Randy Dunham. Veterans of stage performance, BrokeDown Cadillac's live show is electrifying. The band, a tight collection of seasoned players, rarely offer people a chance to sit down, with their string of upbeat, toe-tapping numbers commandeering fans to the dance floor. Corri and Randy have written over two dozen songs for this project, five of which have recently been used in the 2009 Disney box office hit, "Race to Witch Mountain," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The two, joined by their backing band, Danny Reuland on drums, Don Ian on lead guitar, and Jeff LeGore on bass, were also included in a performance sequence of the movie, playing in a honky-tonk bar.

Andy Lauer - Emmy-nominated Lauer has been an on-screen host for many diverse programs spanning the non-profit sector (Red Cross International) to the fun and crazy (MTV, E!). He has co-starred on the big screen in Gunshy (Liam Neeson and Sandra Bullock), Screamers (Peter Weller), Never On Tuesday (Peter Berg), For the Boys (Bette Midler), Oliver Stone's The Doors (Val Kilmer) and Born on the Fourth of July (Tom Cruise). He's best known to America as "Charlie" on the hit NBC comedy series Caroline in the City. He recently directed and co-starred in the motion picture I Was A 7th Grade Dragon Slayer starring Lea Thompson (Back to the Future) and Wendie Malick (Racing Stripes). Due in theaters Spring '10.

Pro Sports MVP, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based company, is a full-service sports and entertainment marketing firm which develops and implements corporate marketing programs and provides marketing services for over one thousand of the world's most recognizable celebrities. www.prosportsmvp.com

SOURCE Hooters of America, Inc.