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As the President and
CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness
organization for St. Jude Children's Research
Hospital, I want to express our concern and gratitude
for you during this challenging time, and also provide
a few updates on how ALSAC and St. Jude are
responding to COVID-19, a type of coronavirus.
First and foremost, I
hope all of you are doing what you can to protect
yourself, your family, friends and your community. All
of our supporters are part of our extended
St. Jude family, and your health and well-being
matter to us.
I know how deeply you
care for the children who rely on St. Jude, and I
can assure you St. Jude is doing everything possible to
protect the vulnerable children in our care. Patients
battling cancer and other diseases treated by
St. Jude are extremely susceptible to contagious
viruses, and our medical leadership is strictly
limiting visits to our campus to essential personnel
only as well as taking other precautions. Thanks to
supporters like you, St. Jude is doing everything
possible to keep them safe and continue care and
research.
As a healthcare
organization, ALSAC takes seriously our responsibility
to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Like many other
businesses and organizations, we have taken important
steps to safeguard our employees and our supporters,
including modified work arrangements like working from
home for most of our staff; educating our workforce on
how to stay safe; and connecting virtually instead of
traveling and meeting face-to-face. We also have
postponed fundraising events that put people in close
proximity to one another and moved others online so we
can continue supporting the patients and families and
our important life-saving work. Each of these decisions
will inevitably impact fundraising, our lifeblood, but
we feel deeply an obligation to our communities and to
all of you to do our part to slow the spread of this
virus.
These challenging
times remind us how much it means to St. Jude
families that supporters like you are with them as
their precious children make difficult journeys toward
hope and healing. Your love and generosity for the
children mean so much to St. Jude, now more than
ever. That's what allows us to continue to provide
cutting-edge care and invest in research so we can
eradicate these awful diseases.
More information
about our mission and these challenging times and ways
to still give online are available at www.stjude.org.
When I think of
compassionate people like you, I am reminded of the
words of our founder, Danny Thomas, who often said:
"Success has nothing to do with what you gain in
life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for
others."
During these
uncertain times, I want to thank you from the bottom of
my heart for all you do for the children of
St. Jude, and for all you are doing to support
your communities as we face this unprecedented moment
in our lifetimes.
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