AMERICA! and Touch of Color recently completed its eighth annual Blossoms to Benefit, a program in which it takes seasonal sales of cherry blossom merchandise and individual donations collected by sales associates and gives the money to the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research.
This year, the company raised $45,000 – nearly double the amount raised in 2011. Since the program’s inception, AMERICA! has donated more than $195,000 to the organization through Blossoms to Benefit.
Jane Crawford, President of AMERICA!, conceived the program after overcoming breast cancer for a second time. She wanted to spread a message through the business she started.
“A second diagnosis of cancer seven years out was a profound reminder of how susceptible we may be to the disease,” she says. “It triggered in me a strong desire to draw on the successes of my business as a means to help others.”
The cancer center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center, is one of 39 comprehensive cancer centers nationwide, as designated by the National Cancer Institute. It seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer through research, patient care, community education, outreach and training.
