Sometimes, in the agency world, folks can cross the proverbial aisle to come together and really make a positive impact. Earlier this month, Edelman, WCG and CommCore joined came together during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual conference in Chicago to help further cancer research.
The partnership leveraged the reach of the “#ASCO12” hashtag and, for every tweet that included it, a donation – up to $5,000 – was to be made to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, an organization dedicated to funding pediatric cancer patient/caregiver support and research.
Amazingly, there were more than 10,000 tweets using that hashtag and, as such, we easily reached our goal and the full $5,000 donation has been made.
WHY 3D.1H.5K?
THE DETAILS:
3D: Started at 6pm on Friday, June 1 – coinciding with the unofficial ASCO12 tweet-up [6] – we tracked tweets that include #ASCO12 for 36 hours, ending on Monday, June 4 at 6 p.m.
1H: 1 Hashtag – #ASCO12
5K: Our goal, raise up to $5,000 for Alex’s Lemonade Stand
The brainchild of Mark Bennett (WCG) and Geoff Curtis (Edelman), the idea seemed a no-brainer to me when presented and CommCore didn’t hesitate to join in. Now, all we’re thinking is: Let’s do it again.
This whole experience has been a terrific reminder of why we’re all in the healthcare business after all – to help communicate important information – very often related to cancer – with the hope of improving awareness and survival, finding a cure, and delivering hope to those who find themselves out of options.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation was started by Alex Scott, who had been battling neuroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer. At age four, she began with a small lemonade stand outside her Connecticut home in an effort to fund research to help other children suffering from cancer. Alex lost her battle with cancer in 2004 at the age of 8, but her family and friends took up the cause and today, the foundation is a worldwide effort that has raised over a million dollars.
We are pleased with the generosity of our friends and colleagues and we hope to grow this effort in the future.
Are you in? Any suggestions on how we can make an even bigger impact?