Coaches vs Cancer; A Media Initiative to Help Fight Cancer

The media industry is known for its expansive participation in a range of good causes. One is Coaches vs. Cancer which is, according to Chloe Lipman, Vice President of Community Development, American Cancer Society, “A nationwide collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches that empowers coaches, teams, and the sports marketing and media industry to increase cancer awareness efforts, organize fundraising activities, and support advocacy programs.” This collaboration, active since 1993, has raised more than $140 million to support the American Cancer Society’s mission to save lives from cancer.

For John Muszynski, Chairman of PMX, the invitation to chair the recent American Cancer Society”s annual Coaches vs. Cancer Dinner Benefit in New York was a great opportunity to honor his wife Gail, a cancer survivor.

“Frankly,” he began, “I really wasn't aware of Coaches vs. Cancer but I knew it had been around for 30 years. The benefit raises money for cancer research through the sale of sponsorships and tables for people attending the event.” The event itself brings together sports figures for an evening that includes panel discussions and personal narratives on their fight against cancer.  This year, Gail was selected to be the honoree by John Bogusz, Executive Vice President Sports Sales for Paramount CBS. Despite a fear of public speaking, especially on such a personal and sensitive subject, she is a media professional with over 20 years at agencies such as Starcom and Leo Burnett. “She was absolutely spectacular,” as honoree, Muszynski remarked.

Previous Coaches vs. Cancer benefits have concentrated on College Basketball. “They talk about how it relates to the media world and entertainment but this year was a little different,” Muszynski explained, “When I was chatting with the Executive Committee they kept asking, ‘What's Gail's favorite school for basketball?’ And I said, guys, I have to be honest with you, she's not a big basketball fan. She's a huge hockey and NFL fan.”

As the discussion continued about which coaches could be included in the benefit for the panel, “the fact that Eddie Olcyzk, a former NHL player, former Olympian just went through a battle with cancer,” led the committee to expand beyond College Basketball for the event. “The folks from American Cancer Society had a contact who knew Eddie and they reached out. The net result was that the evening was less about basketball.” Olcyzk’s keynote talked about, “his experience with cancer, and how difficult it was and talking about the caregiver, and the need to continue to battle this into research and raise funds.

It was very, very well received,” Muszynski noted, “And then my wife came up and she shared her entire story. She's been battling cancer for almost 13 years and she talked about how yoga became a very important part of her treatment plan. It was very inspiring. I can't tell you the number of people that came up to me afterwards, talking about how moved they were by her story and how they can relate because they've got somebody in their family with cancer or they went through cancer and talked about the caregiver situation.”

Gail’s yoga regime began after her first treatments for her cancer in the hospital. It proved to be so therapeutic for her that it led to years of practice including opening her own yoga studio. More recently, she continues her yoga assisting at a studio close to her home.

Asking people for money is usually challenging, but not for this event, according to Muszynski. “I found this to be easier than you would expect. So many have a personal connection to a loved one or themselves being hit by cancer. That was a motivating factor. Also because of my wife and her personality - she knows a lot of these folks from going to events with me - everybody wanted to hear her story and support her. Everybody was very quick to sign up. I don't think I sent a single follow up after I set my first email. It made me feel really good about how our media industry surrounded this event and really got involved.”

For Lipman, the real challenge is Cancer itself. “Cancer is a complex problem,” she admitted, “so it takes a comprehensive approach to make progress. We believe all people should have a fair and just opportunity to live a longer, healthier life free from cancer regardless of how much money they make, the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or where they live.” Health equity for her organization means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to prevent, find, treat, and survive cancer. “It requires us to eliminate barriers and address needs. People have different circumstances, and because of this, the tools and resources will be different from one person to the next in order to achieve health equity,” she added.

In addition to in-person attendance, Muszynski included a video from friends and family in the Midwest. “We live in the Midwest a lot of our family and a number of our friends couldn't attend. So I had a surprise video put together for Gail with well wishes,” he explained. As it turned out, that was the biggest challenged he faced in preparing for the event. “It's amazing how so many of our friends and family do not want to get in front of a camera and don't know what to say. But we ended up having an 9 min video that was wonderful.”

This year’s benefit set records for attendance and fundraising. “This year we had 32 different companies represented, 340 plus people and raised over $375,000,” he noted. Last year there were 21 tables. This year there were 33. “One of the things that the American Cancer Society organizers shared with me was that, with 80 different events for the charity, this was the first time ever that they’ve experienced a situation where they had to extend the venue for an additional hour because nobody was leaving. And you know, in most of these functions, they serve the rubber chicken and you turn around and everybody's gone. Nobody sticks around. But we got out of there close to 11pm. So all in all, very successful,” he added.

For Lipman, her organization is on the front lines. “For 110 years, the American Cancer Society has been a leader in the fight against cancer. More people are surviving cancer than ever before, but there is still work to be done to fulfill our vision of ending cancer as we know it, for everyone,” she concluded.

 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

The Buy Black Directory. A Publicis Initiative to Support Black Owned Businesses in Philadelphia

Written by the VivaWomen of Color Philadelphia Chapter, Buying Black; A Guide to Black Owned Local Businesses in the Philadelphia Area could not come at a better time for struggling businesses in that city. 

Launched during Black History Month and during the pandemic, this directory highlights all Black-owned local businesses across all types of categories including art, catering, creative services, health and wellness, restaurants and spas, etc available as an interactive PDF.

The struggle for small businesses reached a critical point during the time of Covid-19 which added to the already difficult business environment. These challenges hit Black-owned businesses especially hard. According to CBS news, an estimated 90% of Black-owned firms were either ineligible for pandemic related support money or denied loans. The reason behind this is, “these small business owners are less likely to have relationships with commercial banking,” so when they want to apply for a loan, the time frame required to establish a relationship, qualify and apply for a loan often requires too long a wait time, explained Suruchi Sheth, Producer at Digitas Health.

How the Directory Started

According to Tiffany Ford, Senior HR Generalist at Razorfish Health, the Directory started as a holiday guide as part of an event, “that highlighted Black owned businesses in the Philadelphia area.” But the holiday event went virtual as the pandemic raged. This not only placed further stress on already struggling businesses, it also underscored the deep need for a wider, ongoing effort to help consumers recognize and support local Black-owned businesses. Ford wanted the directory to address the questions, “What can I do? What kind of personal impact can I make?”

Philadelphia was the perfect city to launch the first of what is hoped to be many city guides. Sheth noted that, “One out of five small businesses in Philadelphia are owned by people of color. It’s a big part of what shapes Philadelphia.”

Marketing the Directory

As far as the marketing rollout for the guide, is concerned, “Publicis has an internal platform for all of its employees called Marcel which is all encompassing, a network platform that we use, accessed by every single Publicis employee across the globe. We’ve been highlighted there,” Ford stated. This gave the directory an enthusiastic global presence. Additionally, “Publicis has a Philadelphia presence and has highlighted their social media platforms such as Instagram and Linkedin.”

“We (also) published it on a website called Issuu …  and when you upload a PDF to that site, it turns it into this cool online magazine where you can open up the link and flip through the pages. Because it’s on Issuu anyone can access it anywhere,” stated Sheth.

Advancing Change

All of this would not be possible without the efforts of the VivaWomen of Color Business Resource Groupe (BRG). “We launched in 2014 with two chapters in New York and Chicago and it has since grown to more than nine chapters across the country including Philadelpia,” noted Arnetta Whiteside, Director, Multicultural Research and Knowledge Management, Publicis Media Cultural Quotient & National Co-Lead, VivaWomen of Color. The group itself was created to form a network for women of color to help break down silos and create a sense of community at the agency and within the advertising industry. “Our programming centers around four core pillars – Holistic Authenticity, Professional and Leadership Development, Internal Organizational Impact and Advocacy and Community Service and Outreach,” she explained. Ford added that the BRGs have had great impact in Publicis and, “are really influencing the company.”

Next Steps

The plan for the Directory going forward is focused on expansion. Ford explained that, “We would love to have other editions of this and update them seasonally because we know that as things start to open up businesses will start to open up as well as new offerings from existing businesses.”

“It is not one and done,” added Sheth, “Because it’s an interactive guide, people can come back to it.”  The Directory, “was a big passion project for us. With so much negativity going on in the world and so much stress … this guide brought a boost of positive energy into our lives and motivated us to many other things,” she concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com