Press Releases
ATLANTA – Nov. 4, 2010 – The American Cancer Society’s nationwide Corporate Impact Awards Series on Friday will honor 22 companies and a chief executive officer during the Society’s 97th Annual Meeting in Atlanta. The awards will recognize employers’ engagement in targeted efforts to significantly impact cancer’s effect on the workplace, where disease-related expenditures and lost productivity costs annually approach $264 billion. As well, the national citations will address companies’ responsible community involvement, encouragement of employee engagement in the cancer fight, and contributions of funds and in-kind services that empower the Society’s vision of a world with less cancer and more birthdays.
Receiving the 2010 Corporate Impact Awards will be: KPMG – Award of Excellence – recognizing support of the American Cancer Society’s mission of saving lives, achieved through corporate and employee giving, customer engagement and volunteerism, and demonstration of a commitment to employee health and wellness benefits; Chairman of the Board of Directors, United Continental Holdings, Inc.; Retired Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, UAL Corporation, Glenn F. Tilton – CEO of the Year: Excellence in Leadership and Impact – honoring a corporate chief executive who is engaged with the American Cancer Society through personal commitment of time, talent and/or financial support, while facilitating the involvement of employees and/or customers in support of the Society’s mission; Cerner Corporation – Corporate Impact: Excellence in Tobacco Control – for implementing a company-wide smoke-free policy enforced in all U.S. worksites, and for offering employees access to a tobacco prevention/cessation program with all barriers, including employee out-of-pocket expense, having been removed.
Also receiving recognition will be: Cookeville (Tenn.) Regional Medical Center – Corporate Impact: Excellence in Cancer Control – for providing health information, programs and benefits in addressing specific cancer prevention behaviors as well as tracking and reporting on employee health, participation and outcomes; PartyLite Gifts, Inc. – Corporate Impact: Employee Engagement – for demonstrating outstanding corporate-wide volunteerism in support of the American Cancer Society’s lifesaving mission; and Zurich North America – Corporate Impact: Employee Giving – for providing employees with the opportunity to support the American Cancer Society’s mission through a financial contribution campaign that embodies best practices, varied employee giving options, and recognition of donors and volunteers.
Additionally, these 18 companies will receive Corporate Impact Awards for Philanthropy, reflective of their corporate and employee financial and/or in-kind contributions of $1 million or more to the American Cancer Society during the past year: AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP; Bank of America; BCBG Max Azria Group, Inc.; Curves International; dressbarn inc – maurices & dressbarn; FedEx Ground; Foot Locker, Inc.; HairUWear; International Business Machines (IBM); Neutrogena; PartyLite Gifts, Inc.; Pfizer, Inc.; Roche Pharmaceuticals; The Pampered Chef, LTD; UAL Corporation and United Airlines; Walgreen Co.; Walmart; and Wells Fargo. The Philanthropy Awards honor companies’ substantial contributions, generated through employee workplace giving, corporate philanthropy, in-kind support, cause branding, corporate promotions, event sponsorship and team fundraising.
For more information on each recipient’s specific engagement with the American Cancer Society, go to http://acsworkplacesolutions.com/impactawards.asp
“Each of these companies has distinguished itself in providing substantial, direct support to the American Cancer Society and its relentless pursuit to help people stay well and get well, to find cures and to fight back against a disease which has taken too much,” said American Cancer Society CEO John R. Seffrin, Ph.D. “By aligning with the Society’s mission, their generous investments of financial and in-kind resources as well as personal involvement, these companies have signified the priority they place on their employees’ health and well-being, and on helping countless others who are touched by the cancer experience.”
The American Cancer Society Corporate Impact Awards are presented annually on behalf of the Society’s Corporate & Systems Initiative – an effort which creates meaningful, long-term relationships with corporations and employers of all sizes by engaging them in delivery of the Society’s lifesaving mission and support for its numerous programs and services. The Corporate & Systems Initiative helps companies implement scientifically-sound, comprehensive health and wellness programs and provides information and high-quality support for cancer screening and care to help people stay well and get well.
The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early; by helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing more than $3.5 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us anytime, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.
Jamie Kimbrough
Director, Media Relations
American Cancer Society
(404) 417-5889