Community Spotlight | Childhood Cancer Awareness Month with M Health Fairview
Caribou is supporting M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September. For every Cold Press sold on Fridays during the month, we’ll donate $1* to pediatric cancer research at the hospital so that their researchers and doctors can continue developing new life-saving breakthroughs.
Like a good cup of coffee, a great cause has a way of bringing people together. Our ‘Bou Crew always strives to serve with love in the communities we call home, and that’s how our partnership with M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital started. Caribou Coffee team members and leaders from across the Twin Cities donated coffee and their time every month to provide a much-deserved coffee break for not just families, but doctors, nurses and hospital staff too.
Expanding our support
What started as simply supporting patients, families and hospital staff with a delicious cup of Caribou Coffee, has now evolved alongside the ever-changing landscape of the world at large.
One of our first initiatives with the Masonic Children’s Hospital was in 2018, when we launched Caribou Coffee Cares—a partnership with the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Gophers, and Love Your Melon— where proceeds from our Vikings Blend and Gopher Blend coffees (and proceeds from custom Love Your Melon beanies) went back to support programming at Masonic Children’s Hospital.
During the pandemic, we donated thousands of cans of coffee and our BOUsted caffeinated waters to teams and jumped in on unique initiatives to support the hospital however we could, with our ‘Bou Truck and crew in tow.
This also included Chalk for Masonic, a fun initiative in 2020 and 2021. People, families, and businesses were asked to create chalk art with heartfelt and inspiring messages on their driveways, sidewalk, or elsewhere, and share those messages on social media.
Knowing so many families could not leave the hospital, it was a way for Caribou Coffee to show support and send love. Caribou donated $1 for every social share, and it was so inspiring to see how the positive messages exploded across social media—bringing some smiles to patient faces while also raising needed funds for the hospital’s evolving work.
“Minneapolis is our hometown and M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital is in our backyard. It is important for us to support our local community, and this partnership has always been special to Caribou because of the authentic ways we are able to give back together with our partners at the Vikings, Gophers, Twins, and others,” says John Butcher, president and CEO of Caribou Coffee. “The work Masonic does is truly transformative – and we are honored to play a small part in driving their continued impact in our hometown during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.”
Making a difference for children with cancer
This brings us to our most recent initiative—Cold Press for Cancer. For every Cold Press you buy on Fridays in September, Caribou Coffee will donate $1* to pediatric cancer research at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital. Please join us to make a difference for the patients and families who need it most during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Alongside Masonic Children’s Hospital and M Health Fairview, we’re teaming up with a group of Care for Cancer Captains—including patients and doctors from Masonic Children’s Hospital and prominent community leaders like new Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell and professional baseball player Devin Smeltzer.
Each week throughout September, Care for Cancer Captains will share their stories on how cancer has impacted them through videos featured on Masonic Children’s Hospital’s social media channels. You’re invited to be a Care for Cancer Captain, too, by sharing personal impacts of cancer on social media and using the hashtag, #CareForCancerCaptain.
Donations to support life-saving research and clinical care can be made directly to the childhood cancer program through the University of Minnesota Foundation.
We built our partnership on small moments of good and small acts of giving. Whether it’s sharing a positive word, or just purchasing your Cold Press on Friday during the month of September, those moments can truly create impactful change.
*Up to $50,000