Curves has been honored by the American Cancer Society with a 2009 National Corporate Team Program Award presented at the Society’s inaugural Impact Conference held in June in Chicago. The Society’s National Corporate Team Program Awards recognize individual companies’ recruitment of 50 or more teams for participation within the 5,000 American Cancer Society Relay For Life events nationwide. Relay For Life is the world’s largest grassroots fundraising movement.
Curves was the first company to commit to supporting both of the ACS’ major fundraising initiatives as a National Corporate Team Program member—Relay For Life and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer—by meeting participation quotas in each. Curves has been a Relay For Life National Team Program member for three years with more than 600 teams each year. In 2008—its second year with the Making Strides program—Curves’ 445 teams also involved more than 450 cancer survivors. This avenue of engagement of the franchise owners and Curves communities nationwide continues to grow every year, with donations of nearly $2 million in 2008 and $6.5 million since 2004.
“I don’t know anyone whose life hasn’t been touched by cancer in one way or another,” said Curves founder Diane Heavin. “We really are all in this together, and that’s the only way we’ll fight this devastating disease. We can also help each other be personally proactive by doing the three most significant things we can do to prevent cancer: exercise regularly, eat right, and maintain a healthy weight. This is what our great Curves owners do every day for the women in their communities and their families.”
The 40 companies participating in the 2009 Relay For Life National Corporate Team Program raise funds that support the lifesaving work of the American Cancer Society and enable the organization to help people stay well through taking steps to prevent cancer or detect it early; help people get well by guiding them through every step of the cancer experience; by finding cures through funding and conducting groundbreaking research; and by fighting back by encouraging lawmakers to do their part to defeat cancer and by rallying communities to join the fight.
