West Elm and St Judes - Let's make this the season of giving!

One of the things that I love about West Elm and the Williams-Sonoma company is that they are huge supports of St Jude Children's Research Hospital.  Every holiday season all of the West Elm stores carry a variety of products where the proceeds go to St. Jude's and they make a big push to collect donations for the children's research hospital.

I am getting all sorts of personal today on the blog! I wanted to share my story with you and hopefully guilt trip you all into making this into a season of giving and donate to St Jude's!

My Story

On October 26, 1994 I was diagnosed with stage 3 Wilms Tumor.  I had a tumor about the size of a grapefruit on my right kidney that had burst.  I underwent emergency surgery, radiation, and 6 months of chemotherapy.  At 5 years old, this was obviously a huge undertaking and took a tool on my entire family.  

Though I was not treated at St Jude's, the treatments and research done there are a benefit for every child battling cancer.  They are continuously working toward finding cures for pediatric cancers and improving on the treatments that already exist.  I was diagnosed 22 years ago and though those treatments saved my life, I continue to have long term side effects from them and will be dealing with them for the rest of my life.  I gave up my ability to have children of my own when I was 5 years old just for a chance to live.  That is not something that any parent should have to worry about for their child.  The work that St Jude's is doing is helping discover less invasive treatments that are just as effective in killing the cancer and have fewer long term side effects.

West Elm and St Jude

Since partnering up with St Jude's in 2005, the Williams-Sonoma brands have raised more than $34 million for the children of St Jude's. 

There are so many ways that you can get involved, you can make a donation directly through the St Jude's site, or make a purchase of a donation through West Elm.  My store (West Elm - Bay Street) has a personal goal of raising $10,000 through December 11th.  Obviously I am partial to bringing in the donations through our store and I would love you forever and ever if you came in to make your donation (we ring some jingle bells and everyone cheers whenever a donation is made which should totally be motivation enough because that is awesome but there is also the fact that you get to come see me at work, oh and you know, you are helping cure a child's cancer too) or coordinate with me personally to help make your donation through our store.

St Jude Children's Research Hospital

To help see exactly what your donation means to the families and patients at St Jude, here is a little breakdown for you:

$5 helps provide snack bags for the patients and siblings

$10 helps provide a handwriting workbook and pencil grip for occupational therapy

$50 helps provide necessities for parents who a lot of the times left their home in a hurry after their child's diagnosis and didn't have the time to grab even the necessities

$100 can cover a platelet count test for two patients

$250 can cover a red blood cell transfusion

$500 is one hour of physical therapy for a St Jude patient