I’ve written about St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on this blog several times. Here and here and here and here and here. Over the last two years, I have come face to face with the team at St. Jude after having run a viable campaign that I spearheaded for an old client, Ruckus Media Group, raising a significant amount of money to help the children of St. Jude using social media and creative merchandising. Af the end, I was invited to visit and tour the hospital as a partner about which I wrote:
There was an adorable little girl playing in a waiting room, quite diligently making a meal for herself in a pretend kitchen. I looked at her mother who had a handful of balloons attached to her stroller. She looked at me, with big, hopeful eyes, and said, “We’re celebrating her last round of chemo today! We couldn’t be happier.”
Imagine going through that as a mother. The torture of not knowing whether your child will survive an illness and getting to the last phase. The image of the sense of relief on her face will stay with me forever.
I met representatives from other amazing companies at the summit, including Target and Gymboree, who were raising money to help St. Jude achieve its goals, as well as as a representative from Expedia.com. At the time, I was hosting a huge twitter party that was bringing all the sponsors together, so I was seen as the social media queen of the summit.
Here’s why St. Jude is important: St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other deadly diseases. In its 50-plus year history, treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push U.S. pediatric cancer survival rates from 20 percent to 80 percent. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent in the next decade. Because the majority of St. Jude funding comes from public contributions, St. Jude has the freedom to focus on what matters most – saving kids regardless of their financial situation. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food, because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.
Fast forward. Just a few months ago I spent time with several patients from the hospital here in NYC to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Thanks and Giving campaign, which is the campaign my company supported. I was in awe of their strength and determination and everything that St. Jude has done to ensure that they live long, healthy lives.
But I’ve never forgotten the experience of heading down to Memphis to visit the hospital, so when I was invited on a tour of the hospital, hosted by Expedia, I was delighted at first. Then I was devastated that I couldn’t attend due to the Jewish New Year (and the fact that I was out of the country). But, alas, I was able to send contributor and star social media gal, Maria Colaco, of The New York Mom, and she will be reporting on the experience this weekend right here.
As it happens, September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. In response, Expedia recently introduced a month-long campaign featuring travel giveaways and exclusive travel coupons to raise funds in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Expedia has created several ways for the travel community to lend its support. Beginning September 1, 2013, consumers can visit http://stjude.expedia.com/ to enter more than 150 giveaway sweepstakes to win aspirational travel packages. Each entry comes with a suggested donation of $5.00, 100 percent of which goes directly to St. Jude. Consumers can select as many trip options as they like, with the ability to enter each giveaway once a day for the entire month of September. The options are wondrous; they include:
- Bali, Indonesia: Five nights at the stunning Conrad Bali in a Deluxe Garden Room including breakfast, a couples massage and a $500 Visa gift card.
- Vegas Dream Trip: Three nights at the chic Aria Resort & Casino, two tickets to Cirque du Soleil’s Zarkana, a $200 F&B credit to any MGM resort restaurant, a Rockstar Club Crawl, 2.5 hour Vegas Sights & Lights Limo Tour, a flight on Maverick’s ECO-Star helicopter and three pairs of tickets to Vegas on Spirit Airlines.
- Maui, Hawaii: Four nights at the seaside Fairmont Kea Lani and a sunset catamaran cruise plus snorkel or eco-adventure to Molokini with Pacific Whale Foundation Eco-Adventures.
- Marrakech, Morocco: Four nights in a palatial Pavilion room at the Four Seasons Marrakech, including breakfast and a couples spa experience.
- Montana Outdoor Adventure: Four nights in a spacious Big Sky, Montana, Moonlight Mountain Homes luxury cabin and a $1000 Expedia gift card towards air fare or car rental.
At the campaign’s conclusion, a winner will be selected at random for each trip. No donation is required to enter the giveaways and an alternate method of entry is available.
Beyond the dream trip giveaways, there are several different ways that consumers can join this campaign. For example, they can:
- Donate directly to St. Jude to get a hotel coupon. Consumers who donate $25 to St. Jude on this site may choose either a 10% off coupon good for select hotels on Expedia.com or a 20% off coupon good for select hotels via the Expedia mobile app. To get the coupon and donate to St. Jude, click here.
- Donate your rewards. Expedia® Rewards points can be turned into a monetary donation to St. Jude as well. Expedia Rewards points-holders who wish to participate can do so here.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has treated children from all 50 states and countries around the world. It is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. And research findings from St. Jude are shared freely with doctors and scientists worldwide, so the good work that begins in Memphis, Tennessee, ends up helping children and families everywhere.
Disclosure: We were not compensated to write this post. However, all of Maria’s expenses to tour St. Jude were covered by our friends at Expedia. But there were no requirements to write – we write because this is an important cause and we will keep writing about it.
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