Tom Thumb supports cancer programs

For the past decade, yellow-paper kid-shaped cutouts have been a familiar sight every spring in Tom Thumb stores. The $1 icons are the mainstay of Tom Thumb’s Kindness for Kids program, which raises tens-of-thousands of dollars every year for cancer programs at Children’s. The cutouts are part of the company’s ongoing history of support for Children’s.

“When Tom Thumb was founded in 1948, the founders’ (J.R. Bost and Bob Cullum) lifetime goal was to give back to the community, and that value hasn’t changed,” said Connie Yates, director of Public Affairs for Tom Thumb. “Giving to Children’s is an incredible way to touch lives throughout the community and also a way to uphold those things that our customers care about, so we want to support Children’s at every opportunity.”

The Kindness for Kids program is one of the most highly visible evidences of the strong support Tom Thumb has for children in the community. The program was founded a decade ago, when then Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Einstead lost a daughter to childhood cancer. This roused a great passion to create a support opportunity to specifically target pediatric cancer treatment. The paper cutout kids were born as a way to make this happen and to encourage the whole community to be involved in helping fight pediatric cancer.

“The most important thing we can do to support a community is to stay abreast of the needs of the community. A strong community that is daily committed to caring for its members is a better place to live for everyone,” Yates said. “Nothing strengthens a community like a common cause, and few causes are as compelling as pediatric cancer. When a child is affected by cancer, it impacts everyone around them.

When people purchase a Kindness for Kids cutout at a Tom Thumb store, they have the opportunity to write a name on it, and the cutouts then are hung on display in the stores. People often write the names of children they know whose lives have been touched by pediatric cancer. For many, this is a silent way of honoring the struggles and fortitude of brave children everywhere who are dealing with cancer.

Funds from Kindness for Kids primarily support the After the Cancer Experience program at Children’s, which provides long-term follow-up care for recovered cancer patients. Other monies have gone to renovations for the cancer floor and to software and equipment upgrades to help ensure the best possible patient care.

“Our support for Children’s is broadly designated to help kids with cancer, and that gives us the freedom to synchronize our funds with the hospital’s immediate needs,” Yates said.

Tom Thumb also provides indirect support to Children’s through a variety of different events and organizations. Tom Thumb is the presenting sponsor for the Women’s Auxiliary to Children’s annual Family Night at Six Flags and for the annual fun run organized for Wipe Out Kids’ Cancer. Tom Thumb also sponsors other organization’s efforts to reduce childhood obesity, prevent child abuse and provide health insurance for all children.

“One of the best memories of my time working with the Women’s Auxiliary was when a woman came up to me at a sponsor’s event several years ago and shared her story,” Yates said. “She had been part of the Women’s Auxiliary for year, and then her son had need of sudden brain surgery. She said she was sitting in the ICU, wires hooked into every part of her son’s body, when she looked around and realized that if it hadn’t been for all the work of the Women’s Auxiliary and the years of contributions from Tom Thumb, all this equipment might not be there to save her sons life. She was crying as she shared her story with me, and it deepened my appreciation for the work we do every day to support Children’s.”

“There are so many causes that pull your heartstrings, but Children’s is the umbrella that makes many of those causes meaningful,” Yates said. “Whether your child has cancer or a heart defect, or just a broken arm or the flu, they are loved and cared for and treated at Children’s.”

Tags: Tom Thumb , cancer programs , cancer