InterContinental Milwaukee and ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis celebrated the one year anniversary of the Pink Room Thursday, September 22.
These two special guest rooms are designed to build awareness, offer support and foster hope for those fighting breast cancer.
Thank you to everyone who was able to celebrate this special occasion with us.
To find out more about the Pink Room, visit PinkRoomStories.com
By Ginny Finn, Executive Director of ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Ah…the end of summer. The beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Season!
Yes, in our world we call it “season” because there is so much going on before and after October. The season is an amazing time – both energizing and exhausting. In fact, some refer to “pink fatigue.” But the season is only tiring if you lose sight of what’s at stake, only long if you forget that awareness – as the first step in creating change – is foundational.
Sometimes the reminders take your breath away.
But first, why do I call it “a season?” Believe it or not breast cancer awareness efforts have cycles just like the seasons.
To start, we plan the garden. At ABCD we began confirming our speaking and presentation calendar, confirming mentor training plans, and organizing our collaborative efforts with sister organizations in mid-summer. Second, we plant the seeds. We sow our message about breast health and how to get what you need if diagnosed with breast cancer in many “fields” – from community health fairs to “lunch and learn” presentations at workplaces throughout Wisconsin. Next, we tend that garden, keeping in touch with those we meet, exploring opportunities to recruit new mentors and serve those who may have recently been diagnosed. Finally, we assess how the season turned out and plan next year’s garden.
So why do we need reminders that awareness is pivotal? Because on really busy days, in really busy weeks, even I wonder, is this making a difference? The “yes” answers are gratifying, often painfully so.
For example, today when out and about on ABCD business I had a conversation with a woman about ABCD financial business. Once those details were attended to, she asked if she could speak to me about a personal matter. Her sister had just been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. There had been a lump that for many reasons her sister was just “too busy” to get examined; “too busy” mostly meant taking care of family members’ needs not her own. Our lengthy conversation included information to help her sister, her and their mother – all of them will journey through breast cancer together.
Just a few hours later the niece of a long-time friend reached out to me. Her mother had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. I’d like to tell you that because we help people every day, we have a stiff upper lip when a diagnosis hits close to home. That would be a lie. Instead, as I spoke with her my heart pounded; I worried about her and her mother and her aunt, my childhood friend. My only comfort was the knowledge, based on experience, that the power of ABCD’s distinctive one-to-one support really would make a difference. It would soften the stress and fear that accompany the words: you have breast cancer.
And, as I sat down to write this, I received a call from someone who had a mentor last year. She simply called to say “thank you.”
If that doesn’t jazz you and get you ready for Breast Cancer Awareness Season…what will?
We look forward to seeing you at the One Year Anniversary of the Pink Room on September 22, 2011.
We were very excited to meet our Stories of Strength and Support Contest winner, Jenna McGarth, and award her her prize the other week.
Enjoy your stay in the Pink Room, Jenna!
To read their story please click HERE.
If you have a story to tell of strength and support, feel free to share HERE.
There is a war going on and we are winning. Share your stories of support today.
Since July 2010, We’ve has been contributing $25 from each stay in one of our two “Pink Rooms” to ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis, a Milwaukee-based organization whose mission is to provide free, personalized information and one-to-one support to people affected by breast cancer—patients, families and friends. We’re proud to announce that we’ve recently surpassed the $5,000 mark in contributions to the organization.
The initial idea for the Pink Room project came from three employees’—who all share a personal connection with the disease—desire to support the fight against breast cancer. This project has home-grown roots and that’s what we love about it!
When guests of the Pink Room enter their room they’re greeted by an abundance of pink—from the comforter to the commissioned artwork. They’ll notice a laptop on the desk that opens up to the Pink Room blog, where they can read previous guests’ survival stories, learn about breast cancer events in the area and much more. InterContinental Milwaukee’s guests have been inspired by design concept and stories left on the Pink Room blog since the hotel began taking reservations for the Pink Rooms last summer.
Thank you to those that have helped us reach the $5000 mark and let’s continue the journey!
The Pink Room was well represented at the Susan G. Komen Race For a Cure this Sunday, September 26 by Milwaukee’s lakefront.
Here are some of the pictures from the day’s festivities.
By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY
Here’s an interesting example on how one hotel is handling its charitable fundraising efforts: The InterContinental Milwaukee transformed two guestrooms into pink rooms with the goal of raising $10,000 a year for a local breast cancer non-profit.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s article, the InterContinental spent almost a year designing the rooms with all things pink: pink bedding, pink tapestries, pink fabrics from around the world, a pink laptop, pink bathrobe, books about breast cancer and other artistic pieces.
Guests who have been touched by breast cancer or not can show their support by requesting one of the all-things-pink rooms, the story says.
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With each booking, the hotel will donate $25 to After Breast Cancer Diagnosis Foundation (ABCD), the story says. Guests will also receive a $25 gift card to the hotel’s lounge, Clear, plus pink cupcakes and a pink room keepsake.
The hotel’s general manager, Tim Smith, tells the paper that the goal is to rent each room about 200 times each year to raise about $10,000 annually.
For more information about the employees who came up with the fundraiser idea, read the full story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Readers: Would you book a specific room in a hotel if you knew that part of the proceeds were going to a cause you support?
Posted Aug 20 2010 11:33AM
By: Julie Sneider
What impressed Ginny Finn most about the new Pink Room at the InterContinental Milwaukee hotel was that the idea behind dedicating a room to the fight against breast cancer came from three hotel employees who all had some connection to the disease.
Finn is executive director of the nonprofit organization After Breast Cancer Diagnosis (ABCD), a local one-to-one mentoring program for breast cancer patients. ABCD will benefit from bookings of two InterContinental hotel rooms that have been redecorated in various shades of pink to signify support for women and their families touched by breast cancer. The rooms – one featuring a king-size bed and the other two doubles – also come with pink gourmet cupcakes, a $20 gift card to CLEAR, the hotel’s cocktail and tapas lounge, and a breast cancer awareness keepsake. Guests also may share their personal cancer stories in a journal kept in the room or on the Pink Room blog found at www.pinkroomstories.com.
A portion of the proceeds from room bookings — about $25 per night’s stay — will go to ABCD, founded a decade ago by Melodie Wilson, the Milwaukee television journalist who died of breast cancer in 2009. After her initial diagnosis in 1992, Wilson spent the rest of her life advocating on behalf of cancer patients and their families.
The idea for the Pink Room came from InterContinental’s catering manager Bridget Gallagher, executive assistant Sarah Geitner, general manager Tim Smith and Susan Cusatis, the Milwaukee business travel manager for Marcus Hotels & Resorts, the InterContinental’s parent company.
All wanted to do something at the hotel to show support for people going through breast cancer. Cusatis herself is a survivor — she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003; and Gallagher and Geitner both knew others close to them who’ve dealt with the disease. Smith indicated his support for the project after Gallagher and Geitner brought the idea to his attention.
Hotel officials contacted Finn and ABCD at the recommendation of Cusatis, whose morale was lifted by an ABCD mentor during her cancer fight and who now volunteers as an ABCD mentor to help other women.
“The personalized support provided by ABCD is quite powerful to anyone diagnosed,” Cusatis said in an interview after the downtown Milwaukee hotel hosted a Pink Room open house late last month.
Finn said she appreciated the fact that the hotel sought her and ABCD’s permission before choosing it to be the benefactor of the proceeds.
“They approached us in a business-like, sincere and humane way,” Finn said. “They didn’t come to us and say, ‘We’re going to do this to you.’ They wanted to know if their idea for the Pink Room would be respectful of people going through breast cancer. They said they wanted it to be genuinely helpful and didn’t want it to be a gimmick.”
The hotel sought Finn’s counsel on what the room should contain (the journal and information on ABCD, for example) to be consistent with ABCD’s mission, and brought in a local designer to work with Gallagher, Geitner and Cusatis on how to appropriately carry the breast cancer awareness theme throughout the rooms.
Not only are the rooms tastefully decorated in a modern style using shades of pink “that anyone would feel comfortable in,” Finn said, the idea of allowing women and other guests affected by breast cancer to write, blog or videotape their personal stories while staying in a relaxing environment fits ABCD’s mission of providing support and comfort to cancer survivors.
A few other U.S. hotels have used pink themes to raise breast cancer awareness. The Hard Rock Hotels in several cities including Chicago, for example, have hosted breast cancer survivor “Pinktober” parties featuring pink towels and sheets during the month of October (National Breast Cancer Awareness Month), with proceeds going to breast cancer research organizations.
But unlike those events, InterContinental Milwaukee’s Pink Room isn’t tied to a specific event or time of year. It’s an ongoing promotion that will help raise ABCD’s profile, Finn said.
And in her opinion, the InterContinental’s project passes the “think before you pink” test for cause-based marketing.
Ever cautious about cause-based marketing being used to sell for-profit products and services, Finn urges consumers to ask whether companies are transparent about which charity will benefit and the percentage or dollar amount in sales that will go toward the cause. When it comes to breast cancer awareness, Finn recommends the website thinkbeforeyoupink.org, sponsored by the Breast Cancer Action organization, which offers a series of questions consumers should ask themselves before buying something with a pink ribbon on it.
As for the Pink Room, proceeds from room bookings will help pay for ABCD services, all of which are provided free to people diagnosed with breast cancer, Finn said. ABCD trains its mentors – more than 500 have been trained since the group’s inception — and some Pink Room proceeds will help fund activities such as mentor outreach and continuing education. In fact, on Aug. 14 ABCD will host a continuing education session for mentors featuring some nationally-recognized speakers.
While they’re in Milwaukee, perhaps some of the session’s attendees might want to book a Pink Room.
What do ThirdCoast Digest readers think of cause-based marketing? Are you more likely to buy something if you know it will benefit a nonprofit or charitable organization? Please share your thoughts.
The InterContinental Milwaukee hotel’s Pink Rooms are now taking reservation. The project conceived by InterContinental Milwaukee hotel employees affected by breast cancer, and has been a collimation of vision, passion, partnership and friendship.
Guests of the two Pink Rooms will be inspired by the design concept, amenities, and the stories left on the Pink Room blog by previous guests all while supporting the organization, ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis.
To book your stay call 877-510-PINK (7465) or log onto InterContinentalMilwaukee.com/Pink-Room
