Duke Children’s Hospital and Health Center is celebrating a Summer of Miracles through local business partnerships.
Customers across North Carolina are supporting pediatric care improvements at Duke Children’s by shopping at local retailers participating in the fundraising campaign, which runs from May to August.
As one of 170 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Duke Children’s regularly participates in peer-to-peer programs and collaborates with businesses to raise money for pediatric health. This summer, the hospital partnered with corporations including Costco, Publix, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Dairy Queen and Ace Hardware to collect donations.
“Summer is the busiest season of CMN Hospitals fundraising,” wrote Emily Mitch Ward, director of partnerships and cause marketing for Duke Children’s, in an email to The Chronicle.
Duke Children’s also formed an inaugural partnership with two local retailers — Andia’s Ice Cream and Goodberry’s Frozen Custard — to create unique, limited-time ice cream and custard flavors. All proceeds from these flavors go to Duke Children’s, with some directed to specific programs like Child Life, which provides emotional support to patients via opportunities for play, education and self-expression.
“We’re in the business of making people happy, and part of making that impact is giving back to our community,” Andia’s Marketing Director Alyssa Xouris wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “We were really touched by Duke Children’s Hospital from the beginning, so it was a no-brainer to partner together.”
Andia’s invited Champion Patient Ambassadors — Duke Children’s patients who “serve as the faces of Duke Children’s fundraising” — into their production kitchen, allowing them to create a custom flavor for sale in July. The result was Duke Children’s Chocberry Delight: dark chocolate and strawberry ice cream with housemade vanilla cake drizzled with white chocolate.
“Andia absolutely loves kids, so it was also so much fun for her to work with and get to know the inspiring Patient Champions,” Xouris wrote.
This month, Goodberry’s is also selling a specialty custard flavor named after Harper Harrell, a Patient Champion Ambassador. For every serving of Harper’s Strawberry Delight sold, one dollar will be donated to the hospital.
Additionally, all coins tossed into Goodberry’s fountains will be donated to Duke Children’s through their Fountains of Hope campaign.
“Since we are an N.C.-based business, we like partnering with local organizations with strong values and missions,” Goodberry’s CEO Henry Braithwaite wrote. “Duke Children’s has excellent clinical research and provides terrific care for kids worldwide. We wanted to support their mission to bring healing to patients and their families.”
Duke Children’s plans to continue its corporate philanthropy efforts beyond the summer as it celebrates its 40th anniversary of CMN Hospitals membership this year. Past fundraising events have included the MIX 101.5 Hope Radiothon for Duke Children’s and Private Practice with the Duke Men’s Basketball Team.
After a successful first season, the hospital hopes to extend its partnerships with the local ice cream and custard retailers.
“Duke Children’s is very near and dear to us. Whenever there is an opportunity to support them and their mission in the future, we hope to do so,” Braithwaite wrote. “We want to bring smiles to as many of the patients and their families as we can through our frozen custard.”
Andia’s similarly noted their desire to continue partnership with Duke Children’s.
“We already have exciting new ideas for future fundraisers with Duke Children’s,” Xouris wrote. “We hope to continue this partnership for years to come so we can make more and more of an impact on the lives of these incredibly strong families.”
CMN dollar-by-dollar fundraising efforts have thus far accounted for over $80 million raised for Duke Children’s Hospital, nearly $48 million of which resulted from corporate partnerships. According to Ward, this year’s Summer of Miracles campaigns are on track to collectively raise over $1 million for Duke Children’s.
“All funds raised in these programs support Duke Children’s mission of providing the best possible patient care, leading the world in cutting-edge pediatric research and educating the pediatric providers of tomorrow,” Ward wrote.
To shop at a local business partnered with the hospital, customers are recommended to look for yellow and red miracle balloons at businesses across the Triangle, Piedmont Triad, Fayetteville and Wilmington regions to donate.
“We hope our community continues to give and support through the rest of the summer months,” Ward wrote.
Editor's note: This article was updated Thursday to note that Goodberry's sells custard products, not ice cream, and to clarify that the nearly $48 million raised for Duke Children's Hospital through CMN corporate partner fundraisers is only a portion of the over $80 million total raised by CMN for Duke Children's since 1984. The Chronicle regrets the error.
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Kate Haver is a Trinity sophomore and a university news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.