Kay Jewelers Announces $1.5 Million Endowment of St. Jude Children's Research HospitalSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital (ALSAC) Unusual Incentive Trip Introduces Managers to the Children Who Will Benefit (Memphis, Tennessee, March 7, 2000) Employees of Sterling Jewelers, Inc., parent company of Kay Jewelers and part of Signet Group, plc, the largest jewelry retailer in the world, will present St. Jude Children's Research Hospital with a check for $350,000 on Thursday, March 9, at a news conference announcing the company's continuing commitment to St. Jude: a $1.5 million endowment of the hospital's Solid Tumor Clinic.  "This is a significant contribution to our development of new treatments that assist our efforts to increase the cure rate for tumors in the bone, brain and eyes of children," said Joe Mirro, M.D., chief medical officer at St. Jude. Sterling store managers were challenged in September to raise funds for St. Jude through the sale of "Cubby," a white plush bear. The trip to St. Jude is an incentive trip for the 19 managers who sold the most bears and achieved cumulative sales goals during the holiday sales period. St. Jude's clinic is continuing to pioneer new treatments to combat solid tumors that afflict children. As a result of such groundbreaking research, St. Jude has been able to increase survival rates of childhood cancer from 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to better than 70 percent overall today. St. Jude is achieving the following current survival rates for childhood cancers treated in the solid tumor clinic:
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Sterling announced its partnership with St. Jude at their managers meeting last September, where a moving presentation by two St. Jude patients and Sterling CEO, Terry Burman, outlined a holiday promotion that would raise money for the hospital. The Sterling network of stores sold nearly 90,000 "Cubby" bears in just 54 days, raising $350,000 for St. Jude. According to Burman, the trip to Memphis is a fitting reward for the managers who were so highly motivated for St. Jude. "It will be wonderful for these managers to see first hand how the funds they helped raise will be used," said Burman. "It takes our corporate giving program to a new level." Following the endowment ceremony, the attendees will have the opportunity to talk with more St. Jude patients as Richard Shadyac, national executive director of ALSAC/St. Jude, the hospital's fund-raising arm, leads a "Meet the Patients" session over lunch. Events begin at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the Danny Thomas ALSAC Pavilion on the campus of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee, was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas. The hospital is an internationally recognized biomedical research center dedicated to finding cures for catastrophic diseases of childhood. The hospital's work is supported through funds raised by the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC). All St. Jude patients are treated regardless of their ability to pay. ALSAC covers all costs of treatment beyond those reimbursed by third party insurers, and total costs for families who have no insurance. Akron, Ohio-based Sterling Jewelers Inc. operates more than 840 stores in 44 states and employs more than 8,200 people. Sterling Jewelers Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of the London-based Signet Group plc, making it part of the largest specialty retail jewelry organization in the world.
For more information, or to contact St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (ALSAC), see their website at: www.stjude.org |
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