Cold Stone Creamery Founders Donate Against Gay Marriage in Arizona

JMG reader ChrisB in Phoenix tips us to the news that Cold Stone Creamery founders Donald and Susan Sutherland (no relation to the famous acting family) have donated $10,000 to Arizona’s anti-gay marriage Proposition 102. You can find the Sutherland’s donation on Page 16 of this Prop 102 donors PDF. The Tempe-based upscale ice cream chain has over 1000 locations nationwide and in 2007 merged with the Kahala Corporation, which has over a dozen fast food chains under its umbrella.

It’s unclear whether the Sutherlands still profit from Cold Stone. Can anybody clarify this?

RELATED: Earlier this year William Bolthouse, founder of the Bolthouse Farms juice empire, donated $100K to support Prop 8 in California, prompting a nationwide boycott. Bolthouse officials claimed that the company had no business relationship with its founder’s political advocacy foundation. It was later revealed that the Bolthouse Foundation is chiefly underwritten with profits from Bolthouse Farms and that the foundation also gives money to the Evangelical Christian Alliance Defense Fund. Recently the CEO of Bolthouse Farms made a token donation to fight Proposition 8, presumably to stem the calls for a boycott.