I posted earlier about Caribou Coffee and Amy’s Blend coffee and tea.
This week only, Caribou are doubling their contribution to Susan G. Komen! Now 20% of your purchase price of Amy’s Blend coffee, tea, and other merchandise goes to Komen for the Cure.
I can’t speak for the coffee, but the tea (a spiced rooibos blend) really is delicious, so if there’s a Caribou anywhere near you, get in this week and shop for the cure!
© 2010 Patrick McDonnell / Reposted, I suppose, without permission (but only because it was too good not to share!)
If you haven’t yet, click on over to ComicsGoPink.com to see all the strips that went pink two weeks ago to raise breast cancer awareness!
I first heard of Caribou Coffee when I moved to Minneapolis last year (they don’t exist much beyond the MidWest). Although I don’t drink coffee, I quickly fell in love with their Earl Grey and with the company’s quirky personality. Then October came and gave me more reason to love them.
Amy’s Blend coffees were created to help with the medical bills when one of Caribou’s roastmasters, Amy Erickson, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Amy lost her battle in 1995, at the too-young age of 33, but Caribou has continued to honor her memory and fight for a cure by offering the coffees every October. They recently added an utterly delicious rooibos-blend tea, along with other merchandise. 10% of the sale prices go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
New this year is Amy’s Garden, an online tribute to breast cancer victims and survivors that will become a living tribute in Minneapolis and Chicago next spring. For every name entered online, a tulip bulb will be planted in these gardens. I love tulips and adore this idea, especially because tulips are perennials; they will continue to “come back to life” every spring for years to come, honoring the memory of those who can’t return to us and those who did.
(Side note: Caribou are to thank for preventing me missing the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month this year. I went into the store in my current office building on September 30 to buy a tea, and saw the notice that Amy’s Blend was returning. Thank you, Caribou! Now bring back the Caramel Earl Grey Tea Latte Fusion, and I’m yours forever.)
(Don’t forget about Comics Go Pink today!)
Quoted from The State of Breast Cancer:
From “Understanding Breast Cancer” (I recommend visiting this site directly for much excellent information):
In tomorrow’s Sunday comics, more than 50 strips will be tinted pink and sport a pink ribbon, encouraging readers “to make a donation to one of seven different breast cancer organizations [of the donor’s choice] or place a bid to win an original drawing by award-winning cartoonist Dan Piraro (BIZARRO), which will be auctioned to the highest bidder.”
Click the image above to go to the site and get more information. And tomorrow, you’ll be able to view the pink strips in a gallery at the site.
In 2003, I’d just started working at my first post-university office job when Breast Cancer Awareness Month rolled around. I got a roll of pink ribbon and some safety pins from the store and attached a cup full of handmade pink ribbon pins to the wall outside my office door, inviting my coworkers to take and wear one.
One day, I got to work to find Hope sitting in my chair:
I still consider myself a gamer, though these days it’s hard to find time or excuse to sit all day on the computer with The Sims or an RPG (playing with Sister and Nephew in Toon Town Online aside). I’m more likely to be playing something from the ever-growing collection of so-called “casual games” over at the wonderful Big Fish Games.
Last October, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the S in their logo, usually portrayed by their fish
y mascot Felix, had been replaced with a pink ribbon and Felix was peeking out from behind the blue circle of the logo. This year’s logo is a bit different, but still so cute:
Also this year, Big Fish Games are aiming to raise some serious money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. For $5, you’ll receive the “Help Felix Find A Cure Multimedia Package”, which includes 7 wallpapers, 4 screen savers, 11 avatar images, and “the power to change lives!” More impressively, the entire $5 donation goes to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and Big Fish Games are promising a 25% matching donation, up to $25,000 if their goal of $100,000 is reached.
“A new game every day”, responsive customer service, excellent pricing, great games, and breast cancer research support. What more could I ask in my gaming?
I got this email the other day:
At Sharpie, we’re donating $1 per signature up to $10,000 to City of Hope for breast cancer. Join efforts with celebrities sharing their pink signatures to support this great cause.
All you’ve got to do is upload your pink signature and we’ll donate a dollar on your behalf!
Or, purchase a Sharpie Pink Ribbon marker to show your support! For each one sold, Sharpie will give 10 cents to City of Hope. Get Your Sharpie Pink Ribbon Marker Now!
$1 to breast cancer patient care just for drawing a bit with a pink marker and uploading the image. Not a bad deal. (Not having a pink marker to hand, I cheated a bit and used Paint.)
Of course, no discussion of breast cancer awareness and charity would be possible without Susan G. Komen for the Cure:
Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure® and launched the global breast cancer movement. Today, Susan G. Komen for the Cure® is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure®, we have invested more than $1.5 billion to fulfill our promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.
My now-local affiliate, Susan G. Komen Twin Cities, organizes a Mother’s Day Race for the Cure at the Mall of America. Last May was their 18th Race and my first, and was the second largest Race in the country. Go, Minnesota!
Each local Komen affiliate donates at least 25% of their proceeds to national efforts, but up to 75% stays local. So most of the money raised at the Mall of America stayed in Minnesota; most of the money raised in San Diego last November stayed in California.
Oddly, I
remember the year it happened because of 9/11. I remember that the reason Mom was home when the planes hit the Towers was because she was off work due to going through chemotherapy.
My mother was lucky. Because of the cancer developing near the mammary duct, there were warning signs that caused the doctor to bump the mammogram schedule from once a year to once every six months. Thus, the tumors were discovered when they were still tiny dots on the scan, small enough to be removed with a “simple” lumpectomy. We didn’t know how lucky Mom was until the biopsy revealed that it was a highly aggressive cancer. Had she still been on an annual schedule or had the tumors developed in another location… Well, I’d rather not think about that. Continue reading
The Refuge from Reality 