September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time to recognize the children and families affected by childhood cancers and to emphasize the importance of supporting organizations working to end these devastating conditions.
To help do our part, Bob’s pledged to donate over $130,000 during September–and more throughout the year–to amazing organizations that care for children with cancer and improve outcomes through cutting-edge research. Here are their stories:
Emilio Nares Foundation: From Personal Tragedy to Giving Hope…and a Ride
I started the month off with a donation to the Emilio Nares Foundation (ENF) at the grand opening of my El Cajon, California location. ENF was named after the late son of Richard and Diane Nares. When Emilio passed away at age 6 after a mighty battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, his parents honored his memory by creating ENF to help low-income underserved families meet basic needs, especially transportation.
Their mission is to ensure no child misses a cancer treatment due to lack of transportation. What began with co-founder Richard Nares driving families to and from life-saving cancer treatments in his own car steadily grew into a movement much bigger than any one person. Today, ENF’s flagship program, Ride with Emilio, provides free transportation for underprivileged children and their parents to and from the hospital for cancer-related appointments. Through their steadfast efforts, ENF provides more than 94,000 rides a year to children and their families in San Diego and Orange County!
I am honored to support ENF with this Random Act of Kindness toward their Ride with Emilio program, as well as with furniture donations to families they serve.
On hand to receive the check from Bob’s store manager Andre Cantu (middle) was ENF’s VP of Development Katie Khasim, Emilio Nares (left), VP of Development, and Emilio Nares Foundation CEO Karen Terra (right)
The Seany Foundation: Recognizing That Cancer Affects the Whole Family
Like the Nares family, the Robins family also struggled with the loss of their son. Sean, who had been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma (a rare childhood cancer) passed away in 2006, but his legacy lives on. Inspired by his son’s battle, Sean’s father helped found The Seany Foundation to advocate for other children coping with cancer. Today, The Seany Foundation’s main goal is to bring relief and happiness to kids struggling with cancer and to their families, particularly siblings.
The Seany Foundation was new to Bob’s family of charity partners as well. I was touched by the amazing work they do year-round but were really blown away by how they knock it out of the park in the summertime with their popular camp programs. That’s why I decided to offer my support by sponsoring tuition for Seany’s Camp Reach for the Sky.
The Jimmy Fund: A Longstanding Partner
Bob’s and The Jimmy Fund go way back—back to when we had just a half a dozen stores. During our longtime partnership, Bob’s has grown, and so has our support of The Jimmy Fund’s mission to help save lives and give hope to cancer patients everywhere. I’ve been a proud supporter of The Jimmy Fund for over 14 years. In that time, Bob’s has donated over $740,000 to The Jimmy Fund through the Bob’s Save of the Game program.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Parkway Run & Walk
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is one of the nation’s leading children’s hospitals for cancer research. One way they fundraise for their research is through their Parkway Run & Walk. For every donation received through the Parkway Run & Walk, 100% of the funds goes to research for a cure and care for children treated at CHOP.
In 2018, a Bob’s store manager with a personal connection to CHOP rallied the troops for their first Parkway Run & Walk. The Bob’s employees had such a good time, they wanted to participate again. This year, Bob’s signed on to be a silver sponsor for the event and we sent an amazing team of walkers and runners from my Philly-area stores to participate.
Taking a Stand Against Childhood Cancer with Alex’s
The Bob’s Lemonade Stand, run by students from Mount St. Joseph Academy’s Lemon Club, at Eagles Training Camp
To wrap up the month, and this post, I’d like to spotlight Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) one of Bob’s quarterly Café Collections for a Cause recipients. Throughout the third quarter, all the generous donations my customers give in my complimentary cafes were matched dollar for dollar by my outreach team and the combined total was donated to ALSF.
We love our partnership with ALSF so much, we wanted to expand beyond our in-store fundraising to, well, outdoor fundraising! Building on the success of a special partnership I formed last year with Manchester High School, I found another awesome group of high school students from Mount St. Joseph Academy’s Lemon Club from Flourtown, PA, eager to partner with me this year. To date, they’ve fundraised at our Bob’s-sponsored lemonade stand at the Philadelphia Eagles Training Camp and at our King of Prussia store. Way to get out there Team Alex’s!
Bob’s associates, Alex’s reps, and students from MSJA at my King of Prussia store.
Read more about this partnership on our Alex’s blog and stay tuned for more exciting updates after the quarter closes.
Thank you to all these amazing organizations and to our employees and customers who’ve pitched in their support along the way!
