Southern Glazer’s Colorado Builds 500 Chemo Care Kits
225 people. One night. 500 Chemo Care Kits for cancer warriors in Colorado.
On October 8, 225 members of the Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits Colorado team gave part of their holiday sales meeting to the people in Colorado fighting cancer. In one evening they built 500 Chemo Care Kits for cancer warriors in treatment at Cancer Centers of Colorado at Platte Valley Hospital in Brighton.
The next day, Sherise Chew, Trade Development & Special Events Manager and one of Southern Glazer’s Colorado volunteer ambassadors, sent us a note:
“To say the night was a success is putting it mildly! WOW! This is what 225 people were able to accomplish. Thank you so much!”
Giving back is part of the agenda
Twice a year, Southern Glazer’s brings its entire Colorado team together for a statewide sales meeting. Every time, the company’s volunteer ambassadors build in a way to give back to the community. Over the years that has meant 25 bikes for a local school, hygiene kits for a mobile shower program, adoption kits for animal shelters, and $15,000 worth of diapers repacked for families in need.
This year Sherise had a clear list. The project had to work for a big group, stretch the budget to reach a lot of people, and mean something personal. A fellow ambassador had seen what a Chemo Care Kit meant to her own family, and she sent our name to Sherise. When we met, Sherise told us it was exactly what she had been looking for.
From our first call to Build Day was about three weeks. Beyond Basic Needs ordered every supply for the kits and shipped them to Sherise, along with the hand-sewn port pillows. Sherise set the room up in pods so 225 people could keep moving down the line without stepping on each other. Each person added an item and passed the bag on. At the end of the line, a finished kit was ready for a cancer warrior in Colorado.
Packed by hand, headed to Brighton
What’s in a Chemo Care Kit?
Every item is there to make a long day of treatment a little easier. The kits built in Colorado included:
- Hand-sewn port pillow
- Cozy socks
- Eye mask
- Ginger chews
- Lemon & ginger tea
- Electrolyte packets
- Body wipes
- Back scratcher
- Nail file
- Journal and pen
- Fidget toy
- Sensory stickers
The port pillow is the heart of the kit. It cushions the chemo port from seat belts and bag straps, and you can’t buy one off a shelf. Every pillow in these 500 kits was sewn and donated by sewists across the United States, then shipped to Colorado for this Build Day.
Cancer is more than a diagnosis
When our founder, Rachel Minion, was diagnosed with cancer, her phone went quiet. Friends stepped back because they thought they were giving her room to heal. What she needed was the opposite: a text, a laugh, proof that someone was thinking of her.
Beyond Basic Needs exists so anyone can do something real when someone they love hears the word cancer. Every Chemo Care Kit tells a cancer warrior that people they’ve never met are in their corner. With this Build Day, Beyond Basic Needs is closing in on 13,000 kits shipped to cancer warriors in all 50 states.
Gratitude beyond words. Thank you, Sherise, to the Southern Glazer’s Colorado volunteer ambassadors, and to all 225 people who showed up and built. Thank you to Cancer Centers of Colorado at Platte Valley Hospital for welcoming these kits and getting them into the hands of the people who need them. And thank you to our sewists, whose port pillows made every one of these kits complete.
Your group. One event. Lasting impact.
Southern Glazer’s fit 500 Chemo Care Kits into a single night of a sales meeting. Your team can do the same at an offsite, a holiday party, or an employee resource group event. We order and ship every supply, send the hand-sewn port pillows, and connect you with a cancer center near you. You bring the people.