Now that the NFL season has official come to a close, it’s time to look back at another year of successful fundraising with our friends and supporters at National Grid. On behalf of our entire foundation, I’m thrilled to say our Points for Patients campaign – which kicked-off this past August – raised more than $158,000 for JAF in support of patients and families struggling with cancer.
As a refresher – for this year’s program, National Grid pledged to donate $500 to JAF for each and every New England touchdown scored during the 2013 – 2014 NFL season. Our Points for Patients campaign also included opportunities for the public to help tackle cancer’s impact, as National Grid matched public donations, dollar for dollar up to $75,000 to the campaign. The Place restaurant in Boston – the official “home” of the Points for Patients campaign during away games – also donated 20 percent of all sales generated during away games towards JAF, with a minimum donation of $25,000.
Our foundation has a longstanding motto – to ‘pay it forward’ – and Jen and I couldn’t wait to visit National Grid’s Waltham, Mass. offices last Tuesday to personally thank all those who helped make this season’s campaign our most successful yet.
The company was hosting a #GridGetsSocial event, teaching employees how to leverage the power of social media – very fitting, as the Points for Patients campaign was heavily fueled by our Facebook and Twitter accounts. It was great getting to meet so many of the National Grid employees who helped spread the Points for Patients word for us this year, many of whom directly donated to the program. Check out this video Jen and I filmed at the event in National Grid’s mobile photobooth: http://bit.ly/1ipSozv
The Points for Patients program has been such an overwhelming success for our foundation, and Jen and I are truly moved by the generosity of National Grid and its employees this season.
The $158,000+ in new funds will directly support JAF’s mission of providing financial relief to patients and their families so they can better focus on recovery from cancer. In addition to pledging $500 for each of New England’s 68 preseason, regular season and postseason touchdowns – and matching public donations towards the campaign – National Grid had 118 employees independently contribute to helping the program exceed its goals.
As part of the program, National Grid also hosted patient families at select New England home games through 98.5 The Sports Hub Patriots Radio Network and CBS Radio Boston – who we also would like to thank. Because of their generosity, patients like Devin Depauw – a 16-year-old football fanatic from Hanover Woods – got to enjoy a carefree, cancer-free day watching the Patriots. Really, that’s the core of our mission – to alleviate cancers financial and emotional burdens – and we couldn’t have done it without the generosity of National Grid and the wonderful network of JAF supporters.
The Points for Patients program was the second straight year our foundation partnered with National Grid for a football season-long campaign. The local energy provider pledged to donate to JAF for every “Touchdowns by Tom” touchdown pass thrown by star quarterback Tom Brady over the course of the 2012 season, as well as matching public donations, totaling $118,325.
We never thought we could surpass that number, but with you help we did (and then some), and cancer patients and families throughout the region will be better suited to tackle this disease because of it.
Just look at the final scoreboard:
#PointsforPatients: $158,000
Cancer: 0
– Joe Andruzzi