The University of New Mexico

NEWS RELEASE

Media Contact: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu

September 2, 2009

Salsa to Benefit UNM Students
Funding to help students through UNM Foundation’s General Scholarship Fund

It’s called “Hook You Up” salsa, and Paul Panas wants to hook up the University of New Mexico and its students with a donation through the sales of his specially bottled salsa. Panas, who operates the barbershop downstairs in the UNM Student Union Building, has started a semester-long campaign to sell as much of his homemade salsa as possible. For every $4 bottle of salsa he sells, he’ll donate $1 to the General Scholarship Fund at the UNM Foundation.

Panas says the idea came from his desire to give back to the UNM community. “I thought if I could get people to buy the salsa, I wanted to give back to those who bought it. Giving to the UNM Foundation’s general scholarship fund seemed like a great way to give back in a way that would benefit students.”

As an added incentive, Panas says that under specially marked lids of his salsa are rewards for $1 and $5. If sales go well, he plans to put an incentive for $100 under one of the lids.
Panas has been making his unique brand of salsa for six years.

“I was in the barbershop and between lunch and dinner, I decided to make the salsa using a home recipe,” said Panas. “I use eight different ingredients in my salsa. It’s hot. If you eat enough, your tongue will hang out like my picture on the bottle.”

Panas, an aspiring actor who loves comedy, also had his salsa featured on the sets of the movie ‘Wild Hogs,’ and the television series ‘Wild Fire.’ On the set of Wild Hogs, Panas said they needed a chile scene and they liked his salsa, so it was included on the set.

Panas says group discounts are available for those organizations interested. He also sells the hot stuff in cases of 12 for $46 each. For more information visit: http://hookyouupsalsa.net or contact Panas at, (505) 203-8625 or e-mail at, hookyouupsalsa@comcast.net.

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