Jess and Carla’s wedding donation went to The Trevor Project Foundation (The Trevor Project), which is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. The Trevor Project Foundation is determined to end suicide among LGBTQ youth by providing life-saving and life-affirming resources including our nationwide, 24/7 crisis intervention lifeline, digital community and advocacy/educational programs that create a safe, supportive and positive environment for everyone – visit their website. The wedding favors they selected were the Boxed Mini Favors with Burt Sienna ribbons tied on our natural Kraft boxes.

     “…We absolutely LOVED having your truffles at our wedding.  The guests all loved the favors and all talked about them for weeks afterwards.  We loved the chance to choose a charity that was important to us and to raise awareness for the charity with our guests.  It was the perfect choice for us!  We absolutely LOVE what you guys do at Truffles for a Cause and would be happy to support it in any way we can.”

Trevor Project Foundation donation - Closer view of Jess and Carla's guess table with their wedding favors.

Trevor Project Foundation donation - Close overhead shot of Jess and Carla's wedding favors.

 

Comment » | Humanitarian Charities

March Awareness Month begins to get busier with several lesser known charities but never-the-less very worthy organizations. The American Diabetes Association has an alert day on the 27th, along with many single awareness days by other noteworthy charities. March awareness month also highlights World Kidney Day for which the National Kidney Foundation is a champion.

1 – 31 National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month Prevent Cancer Foundation 1600 Duke Street, Suite 500 Alexandria, VA 22314 (800) 227-2732 (703) 886-4413 Fax sarah.abou@preventcancer.org www.preventcancer.org/colorectal   Materials available Contact: Sarah Abou

1 – 31 National Nutrition Month® Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 120 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 2000 Chicago, IL 60606-6995 nnm@eatright.org www.eatright.org/nnm   Materials available Contact: Knowledge Center

1 – 31 Trisomy Awareness Month Support Organization for Trisomy 18, 13 & Related Disorders 2982 South Union Street Rochester, NY 14624-1926 (800) 716-SOFT -7638 (585) 594-4621 (585) 594-1957 Fax barbsoft@rochester.rr.com http://www.trisomy.org   Materials available

5 – 11 National Sleep Awareness Week® National Sleep Foundation 1010 North Glebe Road, Suite 310 Arlington, VA 22201 (703) 243-1697  nsf@sleepfoundation.org www.sleepfoundation.org/event/national-s leep-awareness-week%C2%AE   Materials available Contact: Jennifer Cowher Williams

8  World Kidney Day National Kidney Foundation 30 East 33rd Street New York, NY 10016 (800) 622-9010 (212) 889-2210 (212) 889-2310 Fax info@kidney.org www.kidney.org   Materials available Contact: None designated

12 – 18 Brain Awareness Week Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives 505 Fifth Avenue, 6th Floor New York, NY 10017 (212) 401-1689 (212) 593-7623 Fax bawinfo@dana.org www.dana.org/brainweek   Materials available Contact: Kathleen Roina

20 National Native American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day National Native American AIDS Prevention Center 720 South Colorado Blvd., Suite 650-S Denver, CO 80246 (720) 382-2244 (720) 382-2248 Fax www.nnaapc.org/news/awareness-day.htm   Materials available Contact: None designated

25 – 31 National Tsunami Awareness Week National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services 1325 East West Highway, Room 9462 Silver Spring, MD 20910 (301) 713-1677 x124 deborah.jones@noaa.gov www.tsunami.gov Materials available Contact: Deborah Jones

27 American Diabetes Alert Day American Diabetes Association 1701 North Beauregard Street Alexandria, VA 22311 (800) DIABETES (342-2383) (703) 549-1500 (703) 549-6995 Fax askada@diabetes.org www.diabetes.org/in-my-community/program s/alert-day   Materials available Contact: Local Chapters

24 World Tuberculosis Day Stop TB Partnerhsip (Secretariat) World Health Organization HTM/STB/TBP 20, avenue Appia CH-1211 Geneva 27 SWITZERLAND,  +(41) 22 791 2690 +(41) 22 791 4886 Fax stoptbinfo@who.int www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day   Materials available Contact: None designated

18 – 24 National Poison Prevention Week Poison Prevention Week Council P.O. Box 1543 Washington, DC 20013 (703) 894-1858 (703) 683-2812 Fax wells@aapcc.org www.poisonprevention.org/poison.htm   Materials available Contact: Holly Wells

10 National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Office on Women’s Health U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue SW, Room 728 E Washington, DC 20201 (202) 690-7650 (202) 401-4005  Fax www.womenshealth.gov/nwghaad/ Materials available Contact: Monique Claggett-Davis

5 – 9 National School Breakfast Week School Nutrition Association 120 Waterfront Street, Suite 300 National Harbor, MD 20745 (800) 877-8822 (301) 686-3100 (301) 686-3115 Fax servicecenter@schoolnutrition.org www.schoolnutrition.org/nsbw   Materials available Contact: Laura Maynard

1 – 31 Workplace Eye Wellness Month Prevent Blindness America 211 West Wacker Drive, Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60606 (800) 331-2020 (312) 363-6001 (312) 363-6052 Fax info@preventblindness.org www.preventblindness.org   Materials available Contact: PBA Consumer and Patient Hotline

1 – 31 Save Your Vision Month American Optometric Association 243 North Lindbergh Boulevard, First Floor St. Louis, MO 63141 (800) 365-2219 (314) 991-4100 (314) 991-4101  Fax mcbryson@aoa.org www.aoa.org/x5072.xml   Materials available Contact: Cathy Bryson

1 – 31 National Endometriosis Awareness Month Endometriosis Research Center World Headquarters 630 Ibis Drive Delray Beach, FL 34444 (800) 239-7280  (561) 274-0931  Fax askerc@endocenter.org www.endocenter.org   Materials available Contact: None designated

 

Comment » | Awareness Months

     Very popular with our wedding favors – we receive many wedding donations for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital as shown in our last post in which we displayed the beautiful color combination of navy blue ribbon with the gold twist wrapped foil favors. These favor donations were for St. Jude. If you follow our blog you will realize that the charities we donate to are really the center of our business. We thought that we would give a little history (with the help of St. Jude), of the founder of this marvelous children’s hospital – Danny Thomas. Danny’s prayer and vision are the reason why the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital exists today. Thank you Danny…

St Jude Children's Research Hospital - with Danny Thomas standing next to the St. Jude statue in front of the hospital.

     More than 70 years ago, Danny Thomas, then a struggling young entertainer with a baby on the way, visited a Detroit church and was so moved during the Mass, he placed his last $7 in the collection box. When he realized what he’d done, Danny prayed for a way to pay the looming hospital bills. The next day, he was offered a small part that would pay 10 times the amount he’d given to the church. Danny had experienced the power of prayer.

Two years later, Danny had achieved moderate acting success in Detroit, but he was struggling to take his career to the next level. Once again, he turned to the church. Praying to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes, Danny asked the saint to “help me find my way in life, and I will build you a shrine.”

His career took a turn for the better, and soon he moved his family to Chicago to pursue career offers. A few years later, at another turning point in his life, Danny visited a church and remembered his pledge to St. Jude. Again he prayed to St. Jude and repeated his pledge to build a shrine to the saint if he would show him the way.

In the years that followed, Danny’s career flourished through films and television, and he became an internationally known entertainer. He remembered his pledge to build a shrine to St. Jude.

In the early 1950s, Danny began discussing with friends what concrete form his vow might take. Gradually, the idea of a children’s hospital, possibly in Memphis, Tennessee, took shape. In 1955, Danny Thomas and a group of Memphis businessmen who had agreed to help support his dream seized on the idea of creating a unique research hospital devoted to curing catastrophic diseases in children. More than just a treatment facility, this would be a research center for the children of the world.

Danny started raising money for his vision of St. Jude in the early 1950s. By 1955, the local business leaders who had joined his cause began area fundraising efforts, supplementing Danny’s benefit shows that brought scores of major entertainment stars to Memphis. Often accompanied by his wife, Rose Marie, Danny crisscrossed the United States by car, sharing his dream and raising funds at meetings and benefits. The pace was so hectic that Danny Thomas and his wife once visited 28 cities in 32 days. Although Danny Thomas and his friends raised the money to build the hospital, they now faced the daunting task of funding its annual operation.

To solve this problem, Danny, of Lebanese decent, turned to his fellow Americans of Arabic-speaking heritage. Believing deeply that these Americans should, as a group, thank the United States for the gifts of freedom given their parents, Danny also felt the support of St. Jude would be a noble way of honoring his immigrant forefathers who had come to America.

Danny’s request struck a responsive chord. In 1957, 100 representatives of the Arab-American community met in Chicago to form ALSAC® with a sole purpose of raising funds for the support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Since that time, with national headquarters in Memphis and regional offices throughout the United States, ALSAC has assumed full responsibility for all the hospital’s fundraising efforts, raising hundreds of millions annually through benefits and solicitation drives among Americans of all ethnic, religious and racial backgrounds. Today, ALSAC is the nation’s second largest health-care charity* and is supported by the efforts of more than 1 million volunteers nationwide.

Through striking improvements in the care of pediatric leukemia and numerous forms of solid tumors, St. Jude—which now has a daily operating cost of $1.7 million—has brought about improved health care for children all over the world. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital  physicians and scientists have pioneered treatments that have helped push the overall survival rates for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to 80 percent today.

From a promise of “Help me find my way in life, and I will build you a shrine” to the fulfillment of his dream, Danny lived to see his little hospital become an international beacon of hope for the catastrophically ill children of the world. The founder of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and ALSAC died on February 6, 1991, just two days after joining patients, parents and employees to celebrate the hospital’s 29th anniversary. He was laid to rest in a family crypt at the Danny Thomas/ALSAC Pavilion on the grounds of the hospital. On July 12, 2000, his wife, Rose Marie, passed away and now lies with her beloved husband in the hospital’s Memorial Garden. Today, their children, Marlo, Terre and Tony, carry on their parents’ work and remain a driving force in fulfilling their father’s mission. Danny Thomas is gone, but his dream lives on in the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

 

Comment » | Children's Charities, Stories of Hope

Here’s an attractive basic color combination – gold twist wrapped mini truffles with navy blue (double faced) satin ribbon in our cello bag wedding favors. These cello favors have been replaced by our Mini Favors and they can be purchased with blank or personalized printed ribbons. The ribbons shown are our “old style” Truffles for a Cause printed ribbons. The charity is St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a very worthy wedding donation (for many of our clients), and a very good cause. Check out our previous post about Danny’s Promise and the history of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital which will explain how the hospital started.

Cello favors with navy blue ribbons tied on cello twist wedding favors with gold mini truffles inside.

Cello favors - close up of navy ribbons tied on cello wedding favors with gold mini truffles inside.

 

Comment » | Truffles

February awareness month is a relatively quiet month for the major charities. Noteworthy is the American Dental Association with a special day (Feb 3rd), devoted to children along with their month’s long awareness. Let’s not forget the American Heart Association which is a very popular wedding donation choice with our couples.

1 – 29 AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month Prevent Blindness America 211 West Wacker Drive, Suite 1700 Chicago, IL 60606 (800) 331-2020 (312) 363-6001 (312) 363-6052 Fax info@preventblindness.org www.preventblindness.org. Materials available Contact: PBA Consumer and Patient Hotline

1 – 29 Heart Month American Heart Association 7272 Greenville Avenue Dallas, TX 75231 (800) 242-8721 www.heart.org Materials available Contact: None designated

1 – 29 International Prenatal Infection Prevention Month Group B Strep International 11 El Dorado Court Pomona, CA 91766 (909) 620-7214 (909) 620-5557 Fax info@gbs-intl.org www.groupbstrepinternational.org. Materials available Contact: Marti Perhach

1 – 29 National Children’s Dental Health Month American Dental Association 211 East Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL 60611-2637 (800) 621-8099 ncdhm@ada.org www.ada.org/2714.aspx. Materials available Contact: None designated

3 Give Kids A Smile® Day American Dental Association 211 East Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL 60611-2637 (312) 440-2500 gkas@ada.org givekidsasmile.ada.org.  Materials available Contact: None designated

3 National Wear Red Day National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Health Information Center Attention: The Heart Truth P.O. Box 30105 Bethesda, MD 20824-0105 (301) 592-8573 (240) 629-3255 TTY (301) 592-8563 Fax nhlbiinfo@nhlbi.nih.gov www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/hearttruth Materials available Contact: Information Specialist

7 – 14 Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week Congenital Heart Information Network 101 North Washington Avenue, Suite 1A Margate City, NJ 08402 (609) 882-1572 (609) 822-1573 (609) 822-1574 Fax mb@tchin.org tchin.org/aware. Materials available Contact: Mona Barmash

14 National Donor Day Division of Transplantation, Healthcare Systems Bureau Health Resources and Services Administration U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Parklawn Building, Room 12C-05 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, MD 20857 (888) 275-4772 (703) 821-2098 Fax ask@hrsa.gov www.organdonor.gov Materials available Contact: Division of Transplantation Staff

Also includes in February Awareness Month is –

  • Eating Disorders Awareness and Screening Week (last week of February)
  • Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month
  • World Cancer Day (February 4)

 

Comment » | Awareness Months